Skip to main content

Ticketmaster Accused Of Being Its Own Enemy, Helping To Scalp ‘Hamilton’ Tickets

LOS ANGELES (CelebrityAccess) In an ongoing legal battle between Ticketmaster and secondary ticketing outlets, the latter has fired a salvo, saying in a counter-complaint that TM is the actual bad guy and secretly providing the tools necessary for scalpers to get tickets, at least in the case of the much-desired “Hamilton” Broadway show ducats.

Ticketmaster has been battling firms Prestige Entertainment and Renaissance Ventures in the court system, accusing them of employing bots to harvest tickets to “Hamilton.” The Live Nation subsidiary filed a lawsuit in October alleging the two companies are breaching an agreement with the New York’s attorney general by using the technology.

Prestige, however, has punched back, saying that TM is its own culprit, creating and disseminating its own bots then pointing the finger elsewhere, as first reported by The Hollywood Reporter.

TM “alleges that many tickets to this show were purchased by bots, which it alleges deprived the public of fair access to primary exchange tickets,” the cross-complaint alleges. “However, TM fails to mention that, on information and belief, many tickets for each show of Hamilton were in fact never placed onto the primary ticket exchange, but went directly to the secondary ticket market for resale at significantly higher prices.”

The cross-complaint further claims that “when TM sells a ticket to a reseller, it not only collects the full commission from that primary sale, but it has a significantly higher chance of that ticket being placed on one of its secondary ticket exchanges — after all, resale is what resellers do,” continues the complaint. “TM then receives a second, ‘double-dip’ commission on the resale of that ticket. TM’s ticket listings for popular shows are often dominated by tickets on its resale exchange — tickets which originally came from its primary exchange and thus for which it is getting double-dip commissions.”

Also, “Upon information and belief, TM has actually provided automated programs to ticket resellers in order to allow them to purchase tickets from TM or immediately post those tickets to TM’s own secondary exchange for resale faster and in automated fashion. Such “double-dip bots” created and distributed by TM for use on its own ticketing system not only belie the false narrative that TM offers concerning attempts to stop bots or ticket resellers from purchasing tickets, but also evidence TM’s use of its overwhelming primary ticket exchange market power to control the secondary ticket market as well.”

A spokesperson for Ticketmaster responded to the THR article: “The claims made in this filing are patently false. Ticketmaster in no way, shape or form supplies automated programs known as bots to give ticket resellers an advantage over real fans. Ticketmaster has taken a strong stance against bots, has zero tolerance for their use, and cancels tickets that are purchased using them. Prestige Entertainment is one of the country’s most notorious bot users, and these claims are a desperate attempt to shift the focus away from their illegal business model, which the court previously stated ‘is built on a scheme to evade Ticketmaster’s policies for profit.'”

Full complaint available here.

The post Ticketmaster Accused Of Being Its Own Enemy, Helping To Scalp ‘Hamilton’ Tickets appeared first on CelebrityAccess.



from CelebrityAccess https://ift.tt/2KsP518
via IFTTT
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

AWAL Hires Thomas Fiss As Vice President of Strategic Marketing, North America

LOS ANGELES (CelebrityAccess) – Kobalt’s recording arm AWAL has hired Thomas Fiss as Vice President, Strategic Marketing, North America. In this new role, Fiss will oversee creative multichannel marketing, including conceptualizing and producing content offerings and partner integrations for AWAL artists, to grow relationships with brands, media outlets and other external organizations. Fiss joins AWAL with more than 10 years of music industry and partnership marketing experience. Most recently, he served as a department head at Life is Beautiful Music Festival, where he managed brand partnerships, including strategy and execution. He is also the co-founder of Partner.ly, a software platform that simplifies the artist and brand partnership process. Prior to beginning his marketing career, Fiss was a recording artist signed to Capitol Records in the US. Commenting on their latest hire, AWAL President, North America Ron Cerrito said: “We are reimagining the construct and type of serv...
Post a Comment
Read more

Arctic Monkeys, Hozier & George Ezra Among The Ivors 2019 Nominees

LONDON (CelebrityAccess) – Arctic Monkeys, Hozier and George Ezra are among the nominees for the 2019 Ivors, which were announced earlier today (April 24). Now in their 64th year, The Ivors celebrate, honor and reward excellence in British and Irish songwriting and composing across categories for songs, albums, film, TV and video game scores. Works eligible for this year’s awards were commercially released in the UK in 2018 and have a British or Irish songwriting or composing contribution of at least a third. “The works nominated for The Ivors 2019 are brilliantly diverse, and we’re delighted to see so many first-time nominees recognised,” said Ivors Academy chair Crispin Hunt in a statement. “As the only peer-nominated music award in the country, they are a fantastic reflection of the exciting emerging talent of British and Irish music creators today. Our congratulations to all nominated.” This year’s winners will be revealed during a ceremony at Grosvenor House, Park Lane, ...
Post a Comment
Read more