Ticketmaster is caught in another class-action lawsuit in federal court which claims the ticketing giant unlawfully contracts with scalpers and profits from the dealing, violating California law.
Mahmoud Ameri and Erin Ouborg, represented by Brent A. Robinson of Atman-Smith & Marcy, brought on the lawsuit after they purchased tickets through Ticketmaster and were financially hurt, Top Class Actions reports. According to the suit, the customers said that Ticketmaster sells tickets in bulk on its website to professional resellers and then the tickets are sold at an inflated price. The duo claim that Ticketmaster receives double commission and believe the practice is “unlawful.”
The suit also claims that Ticketmaster denounces scalping, stating that bulk purchases by resellers are prohibited, but the company is contradicting themselves. Ameri and Ouborg note that while the company does not enter into agreements with resellers, they provide computer programs to scalpers and encourage resellers to use fake identities to purchase tickets. They pointed to TradeDesk, calling the program a “computerized system secretly created by Ticketmaster for professional scalpers.”
TradeDesk has faced harsh criticism over the past year after a Ticketmaster salesperson told an undercover reporter for CBC that the company turns a blind eye to brokers who buy tickets on their site and operates in resale.
The duo say that Ticketmaster’s conduct, including hiking prices, violates California Business and Professions Code, along with the Cartwright Act. They believe that Ticketmaster is “entering into and engaging in unlawful contract, combination, and conspiracy.”
This is just one of the lawsuits against Ticketmaster; one stems from a Regina, Saskatchawan-based lawyer, and another is based in the United States, where the Hagens Berman firm is seeking consumers who feel they have been affected by Ticketmaster’s policies to form the basis of a lawsuit here. Additionally, a California government official has proposed legislation that would ban TradeDesk from selling tickets on the secondary market, claiming that all “California [should] have equitable access to tickets.”
