Eric Schneiderman said his office’s probe revealed that just 46 per cent of tickets for events are reserved for the public, according to data on the top-grossing shows in ny, 2012-2015.
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As part of a crack-down on the abuse, two businesses that sold thousands of tickets to events in NY agreed to pay penalties for not having a ticket reseller license. The New York Attorney General’s Office examined the ticket fees of 150 venues and found that convenience charges and service and processing fees could add an average of 21 percent to the cost of a ticket.
Many NFL teams encourage or even require ticket holders to use Ticketmaster’s NFL Ticket Exchange platform, where the seller is prohibited from cutting the price below face value.
As many as 54 percent of tickets in the NY area are held up in holds and presales, the report finds.
Schneiderman wants law enforcement to work closer with Ticketmaster, AXS and other ticketing companies to identify bots and capture, arrest and prosecute individuals who use bots to buy up tickets.
“Ticketing is a fixed game”, Schneiderman said in a statement.
The Attorney General’s investigation centers on resale price floors-the practice of putting a lower limit on ticket prices to ensure that they don’t go for less than a certain value.
The investigation found that ticket bots – illegal software that allows people to buy large numbers of tickets – were being used by brokers who sold them on with profits of up to 1,000 per cent. He criticized the practice in a report released Thursday.
“This rule makes NY an outlier”, Schneiderman said. The report, the settlements and the National Football League probe together signal the start of a broad investigation into the whole ticket industry.
The report alleged in some cases half of event tickets are reserved for insiders before the public has a chance to buy any. NFL Spokesman Brian McCarthy didn’t immediately return an e-mail seeking comment.
A solution that most industry participants agree is effective at reducing broker activity is the use of non-transferrable “paperless tickets”. When the on-sale time hits, you refresh your browser to score tickets to your favorite band, a stand-up show or sporting event but for some reason tickets aren’t available. He’s looking to go after these electronic ticket buyers – but, so far, the brokers behind the bots have proven elusive.
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“I’ve worked with artists to make ticket prices affordable, only to see those same tickets on sale on the secondary market for much more than face value”, David Taylor, an independent promoter with Empire State Concerts said. By the end of the day, that same broker had bought more than 15,000 tickets to U2’s shows across North America.
