NHL ticket giant Ticketmaster BUSTED for ripping off fans

In a joing undercover investigation by CBC News and The Toronto Star, sporting ticket giant Ticketmaster has been busted for hiring professional scalpers in an effort to squeeze even more money out of paying customers.

In July, CBC News and the Toronto Star sent undercover reporters to a giant industry convention in Las Vegas called Ticket Summit 2018 where they uncovered the underhanded and downright illegal business practices of Ticketmaster.

Check out some of these quotes, courtesy of CBC News’ article on the takedown:

Box-office giant Ticketmaster is recruiting professional scalpers who cheat its own system to expand its resale business and squeeze more money out of fans, a CBC News/Toronto Star investigation reveals.

Posing as scalpers and equipped with hidden cameras, the journalists were pitched on Ticketmaster’s professional reseller program.

Company representatives told them Ticketmaster’s resale division turns a blind eye to scalpers who use ticket-buying bots and fake identities to snatch up tickets and then resell them on the site for inflated prices. Those pricey resale tickets include extra fees for Ticketmaster.

In effect, Ticketmaster is partnering with professional scalpers, driving up the price of tickets on resale and then pocketing even more money from scalpers. As if $200 for a face value ticket isn’t enough! Ticketmaster is actually making a percentage based on the above market price scaled tickets! How is this legal!?

More from CBC’s investigation:

So, for example, if Ticketmaster collects $25.75 on a $209.50 ticket on the initial sale, when the owner posts it for resale for $400 on the site, the company stands to collect an additional $76 on the same ticket.

CBC News obtained a copy of Ticketmaster’s official reseller handbook, which outlines these fees. It also details Ticketmaster’s reward system for scalpers. As scalpers hit milestones such as $500,000 or $1 million in annual sales, Ticketmaster will knock a percentage point off its fees.

If that’s not blatant market manipulation and collusion… well we don’t know what is. No one benefits from this OTHER than Ticketmaster. Ridiculous. Richard Powers, associate professor at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management, sums it up best saying, "Helping to create a secondary market where purchasers are duped into paying higher prices and securing themselves a second commission should be illegal."

For the full investigation, click the link below: