Ticketmaster Entertainment has reportedly run afoul of Canadian Attorney General Chris Bentley who is going to propose legislation that seeks to stop the company from listing tickets with its TicketsNow secondary ticket selling subsidiary.
In recent months, Ticketmaster has come under fire in Canada for allegedly manipulating tickets and fans by withholding tickets and making them available for higher prices on TicketsNow, a charge Ticketmaster vehemently denies.
The situation has led to lawsuits North of the Border, and now Bentley wants to definitively crack down on the alleged practice by prohibiting Ticketmaster from posting tickets on TicketsNow in Ontario altogether.
Ticketmaster recently settled a complaint with New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram over the company’s handling of the sale of Bruce Springsteen tickets, and part of the settlement calls for the company not to list presale tickets on TicketsNow. However, Ticketmaster did not agree to stop listing tickets on TicketsNow, and the company reportedly has not agreed to do so in Ontario.
Ticketmaster Entertainment CEO Irving Azoff, during testimony last month before Congress about the company’s proposed merger with Live Nation, blasted the secondary ticket market and said he would like to see Ticketmaster sell TicketsNow, which the company bought for $265 million last year.
“We’ll be drafting legislation to deal with these issues concerning access and pricing when tickets are issued and then turn up on the resale market,” Bentley told CBCnews.ca.
Ticketmaster did not return a message seeking comment. Bentley did not disclose a time frame for when he plans to issue the proposed legislation.
