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Ticketmaster Accused of “Price Gouging” in Canada

7/14/08, 12:03 pm EST

As if the imminent Live Nation ticketing venture wasn’t enough for Ticketmaster, the company now has to deal with accusations of “price gouging” by angry Elton John fans in Saskatchewan. When tickets for Elton John’s performance in the capital city of Saskatoon went on sale, fans discovered that Ticketmaster had already sold out of their allotment, and instead recommended fans try to buy tickets at Tickets Now, a secondary ticketing site owned by Ticketmaster. Not only did Tickets Now already have tickets for sale, but they were also demanding much higher prices than originally posted on Ticketmaster, leading fans to accuse the company of scalping and getting the province’s Justice Minister involved.

Ticketmaster said they were not aware they were shuffling fans to Tickets Now and has since removed the link. The company’s head of ticketing in Saskatchewan said, “The inventory belongs to the promoter and artist, and the artist determines who has what privileges in advance of the public on sale or not, like fan clubs for instance.” The situation is similar to an incident last year where angry parents of Daniel Kreps

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Comments

ticketmasterhater | 7/14/2008, 12:38 pm EST

Is this news? They’ve been doing this for a long time … HELLO!

duh | 7/14/2008, 2:15 pm EST

Haha, yeah that’s what I was thinking too when I saw this headline.

Maybe artists should start to sell their tickets directly from their websites or solely through the arenas.

Stage Front Tickets | 7/14/2008, 4:00 pm EST

That’s a load of bologna. Ticketmaster bought Tickets Now a few months ago so they could also get money from secondary brokers.

Frank | 7/14/2008, 4:47 pm EST

Supply and demand….

jo | 7/14/2008, 5:03 pm EST

ticketmaster is the biggest scam out there! they fn add so many
unnecessary charges. There is no such thing as getting cheap tickets from them anymore. A $16 dollar tickets ends up being $36! It’s insane and I hope they go under when Live Nation begins to sell tickets! DOWN WITH TICKETMASTER!!

David | 7/14/2008, 5:17 pm EST

The same thing happened to me for Coldplay

joel scott | 7/14/2008, 7:45 pm EST

Sorry New York editors, Saskatoon is a city, not a province! The “ticketbastards” scandal involves Reg Dwight tickets (Elton) in the Capital city of Regina and it’s other urban center Saskatoon in the Province of Saskatchewan! (just north of North Dakota and Montana!)

Dan | 7/14/2008, 8:06 pm EST

I like how ticketmaster finally got caught ripping people off.I liked that part about how “Ticketmaster was NOT aware that they were routing ticket buyers to tickets now and has since removed the link”.They removed the link cause they finally got caught.

Ticketmaster = Scam | 2/11/2009, 10:45 am EST

Ticketmaster ripping people off? Gasp. I’ve always wondered what the “convenience fee” is really for. I bought tickets to an event through Ticketmaster, then the show was cancelled at the last minute. I was refunded the price of the tickets, but not the “convenience fee”. It didn’t feel very convenient to me- I was out $20 for an event that never even happened!

chris | 2/20/2009, 9:26 pm EST

People who are complaining about the prices need a reality check. seriously, if you can’t afford something stop complaining that you can’t buy it. Should BMW or Mercedes lower their prices because i want to own but don’t’ feel they are worth what they ask. Please….find something better to do with your time.

Sheila | 11/18/2009, 10:55 am EST

Ticketmaster just charged me $9.25 for a convience charge. They have a monopoly on ticket sales and should be regulated. Where else can we buy tickets? When there is no alternative, then regulations should be in place.

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