Inquiry finds sales of concert tickets are a ‘fixed game’

The investigation uncovered practices and abuses that prevent NY consumers from accessing tickets at affordable prices – or even accessing them at all.

The attorney general says investigators discovered some brokers mark up tickets as much as 1,000%.

Due to ticket brokers using illegal bots and other methods, the state report said the average ticket price sells for almost 50 percent more than face value. In one case, the investigation says, a single broker used automated software to purchase 1,012 tickets to a June 2015 U2 show at Madison Square Garden within the very first minute of the sale. On average, more than half of all tickets – 54 percent – are reserved for insiders. Also, 38 percent of available tickets were held for “pre-sales”, usually through credit-card-company promotions by American Express, Citibank and others; Fleetwood Mac held back 61 percent of tickets for a 2013 MSG show this way, as did Jay Z and Justin Timberlake with 71 percent of tickets for a 2013 concert at Yankee Stadium.

The report offers several solutions- capping the amount a re-seller can markup the price and eliminating the use of bots are just two suggestions.

“The industry must provide greater transparency into the allocation of tickets, to increase accountability and enable the public to make informed choices”, Schneiderman wrote.

The report makes a number of recommendations, including encouraging concert promoters to be more transparent about how tickets are made available to the general public and for secondary market services to be more proactive in policing their service.

Have you ever had a hard time buying tickets to a game or concert event?

“It uncovers what’s really a shadowy network, or has been up until now, of middlemen, brokers, ticket vendors and more who really use any means they can, some legal, some illegal, to jack up the prices of tickets and squeeze money out of fans”, Schneiderman told reporters.

Photo: Getty ImagesA 2007 state law allowing re-sellers to operate was created to avoid establishing price floors, the report said.

“… Most of the online platforms we examined charge no “general” fees to consumers for the sale of tickets or goods and post prices that already reflect the full cost to the consumer”, Schneiderman said in his report. As a result, the initial purchaser typically must be present to use the ticket.

The floor pricing issue was part of a larger report Schneiderman released Thursday following a multi-year investigation into the ticket industry.