Ticketmaster Accused Of Working With Ticket Scalpers And Taking A Cut [Video]
In a recent undercover investigation, Ticketmaster was reportedly caught participating in a "secret scalper program" with ticket scalpers, and as a result making a mint from the ticket fees.
Cbsnews.com reports that entertainment giant Ticketmaster seems to be part of an underground ticket scalping project, and it could be driving up prices and costing folks like you and me millions.
An investigation by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and the Toronto Star claims Ticketmaster is helping scalpers buy tickets and resell them at a higher price.
CBC investigative reporter Dave Seglins tells cbsnews.com -
"They have a secret scalper program that they don't talk about in any corporate reports. What we discovered is they are selling something called TradeDesk, which is an online system….It's purposely designed for professional scalpers. It helps manage large inventories."
How this reportedly works is, scalpers create hundreds of different accounts on ticketmaster.com. You see, currently Ticketmaster limits the amount of tickets a customer can buy in an "effort" to combat scalping. In reality, Ticketmaster is allegedly well aware that scalpers, in some cases have "over 200 accounts".
This allows scalpers to buy tickets in bulk. Those scalpers are reportedly suggested to resell those tickets, even at a higher price, through a Ticketmaster-run website called https://tradedesk.ticketmaster.com.
So, Ticketmaster makes money from the outrageous fees they charge from the initial sale of the tickets, then double dip and make those fees again from the resale of the tickets through their own resale site.