Ticketmaster Hit With Class Action Lawsuit for Allegedly Encouraging Scalpers

https://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/touring/8477889/ticketmaster-hit-with-class-action-lawsuit-for-allegedly

Ticketmaster makes headlines this week by allegedly encouraging scalpers to sell tickets for higher than the actual price. Toronto Star from Canada's CBC sent in undercover reporters to a live entertainment convention in Las Vegas where they claimed Ticketmaster representatives admitted to encouraging scalpers to boost their sales. Ticketmaster charges fees for the original sale and they charge fees on resale tickets. This is even more surprising to some because the Ticketmaster website labels scalpers as a "unfair competition" but yet, they encourage "professional resellers" and it seems they have not determined where the line between those two is to be drawn.

I've personally never liked Ticketmaster and am not surprised by this news. Just yesterday I was trying to find cheap tickets to go see TobyMac, but the Ticketmaster fees made even the cheapest seats over my college-student-budget. Now that this news and lawsuit has been released, the music industry will become divided. Some bands, like Twenty One Pilots, have been revolutionizing the way we buy concert tickets to ensure scalpers can't screw over the fans who deserve to see them live. Ticketmaster is one of the few platforms to not enforce a verification process before buying tickets to ensure the tickets will not be sold by the customer for personal profit. Bands who truly care about their fans will probably stop using Ticketmaster if the lawsuit goes through and they don;t change the policies/ behavior. Bands who are only looking for profit will probably still use Ticketmaster as their main selling platform. Those bands, if Ticketmaster gets exposed, will lose their following and consumers will become more aware of their corruption and will choose to use another platform.