NY AG looking into ‘speculative’ Springsteen ticket listings

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is looking into whether “speculative” ticket listings for Springsteen’s 2016 tour on ticket resale sites constitute deceptive advertising.

Schneiderman’s office sent letters expressing concern to three leading online sites that offer tickets on the secondary market.

Letters from the Attorney General’s Office are asking for these sites to provide a variety of information about how they combat speculative tickets, including specific information about these shows. But hundreds of seats have already been listed for up to $5,000 or more on resale sites.

But “maintaining our place as an industry leader in transparency and compliance, we have voluntarily chosen to take down any inventory listed on our site for Bruce Springsteen concerts in NY until the public sale this Friday and urge any other sites that have them listed now to do the same”, the company said in a statement.

A Vivid Seats representative had no comment on the tickets on its site.

“Speculative tickets harm both consumers and the ticket industry”, wrote Assistant Attorney General for the Internet Bureau Jordan Adler.

StubHub, according to Reuters, said that it stood behind every ticket sold on its website, even if there is a glitch.

Instead punters with standing tickets were required to produce the card that they used to buy their tickets, and their ID to gain entry to the venue.

These listings have drawn the attention of the New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.

“Speculative” tickets are so-called because they are sold under a false pretense. They generally try to purchase an actual ticket when they go on sale to the public and pocket the difference between what they charged the buyer and what they paid.

Katersky also said that tickets for the show at Madison Square Garden in NY are going around $5,800 a piece for these speculative tickets.

Schneiderman says speculative tickets often end up being for different locations or seats than advertised and in some cases, consumers don’t get tickets at all. He goes on to say speculative tickets can cause “widespread confusion and frustration among customers”.