StubHub, Ticket Vendors, Scalper Bots Under Fire From NY Attorney General

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman says tickets for most in-demand events is a “fixed game” in a report that brings out glaring irregularities in the ticketing industry.

Multi-year investigation finds more than half of all tickets to many popular concerts are reserved for event insiders and pre-sale customers before tickets even go on sale to general public.

If you’ve ever screamed at the computer trying to get tickets to a sold-out concert while a Ticketmaster captcha calls you a “hipster assboal”, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman just confirmed that your rage is rational.

In addition, Schneiderman announced settlements with two ticket brokers, MSMSS LLC and Extra Base Tickets LLC, after they were found to be illegally operating without ticket reseller licenses. They found that on average, 16 percent of tickets are reserved for various industry insiders like the venue employees, artists and promoters, while 38 percent are reserved for presales to certain groups like holders of a particular credit card.

In terms of ticket fees, Schneiderman said ticket vendor fees are much higher than other online retailers. The more aggressively sports leagues and individual teams push ticket buyers and sellers to use their “official” secondary markets, the more serious this problem becomes. The report also urges the state’s Legislature remove its restrictions on paperless ticketing, which is created to put the kibosh on scalpers, but is rendered ineffective due to the requirement that shows offering nontransferable paperless tickets is also required to offer them in transferable form, undercutting their objective.

“I’ve been to numerous concerts in my life, but recently I’ve had more difficulty purchasing tickets”, said Debra Cresanti of the Town of Cheektowaga. “Brokers then mark up the price of those tickets – by an estimated 49% on average, but sometimes by more than 1,000% – yielding easy profits”.

The report also makes some legislative recommendations, though casual users of sites like StubHub need not worry about losing their backup source for tickets yet.

Jim McIsaac/Getty Images Schneiderman found that the Yankees also set floor prices for the re-sale of tickets, but it’s unclear if the team is also under investigation.

The Yankees did not immediately reply to a request for comment. Consumers should be protected from unfair and deceptive practices that make it harder for fans to buy and use event tickets in an open market.

The report questions service fees, which under NY law are prohibited unless “reasonable” and connected to the provision of a “special service”.