www.ticketnews.com: The House Energy and Commerce Committee announced Thursday it would be investigating the live event ticketing industry, looking for “potential unfair and deceptive practices” within, according to a press release. Letters were sent to Live Nation, Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG), Tickets.com, StubHub, Vivid Seats, and TicketNetwork requesting details on business practices from each and a briefing to take place by December 12th.
3 comments:
I’m skeptical. Sure, I see a lot of good that can come from these hearings but I also see the potential for these ticketing companies (who are private business) talking a lot of talk and not doing anything, no changes. Or better yet, bribing members of congress (through campaign donations and gifts to congressionals PACs) to produce a bill so weak that it can’t even stand to get wet, let alone to hold water. That is usually what happens. Congress makes a big deal about something and through back door deals and secret meetings, the final product is weak and doesn’t protect the consumer at all. And if Congress does pass a strong protection bill and it gets signed into law, it will then face court challenges that will keep it from being enforced for years. Ticket companies like Live Nation only care about profit, that is the bottom line and anything that attacks that chance to earn more (in this case through fees and deceptive practices) is going to be met with a lot of criticism. It will be interesting to see the final product but I am not holding my breath on it changing the industry.
Not until joining the industry after college then I discovered how serious is the existing ticketing problem is. The worst I have heard is that tickets are bought and sold again with 12 times of what they were officially priced. And what made it became a issue that required national committee to address it with hearings? It was not against the law. More specifically, there is not a law, a standing, common law that prevent people making profits by manipulating the rules set by commercial ticketing companies to get early and cheap tickets and sell them to real audience. The last major news caught my eyes was that one Japanese company actually canceled the tickets that were resold, dumping half million dollars just to show their determination of abolishing this ugly practice of capitalizing the real fans of the concert. I hope this won't become the common solution, since it not only punish the reseller, but also barred people that truly want to see the show.
I thought this article would be more interesting. I guess there really isn’t much fun in the live event ticketing industry. The charges the government is investigating is the opacity of final price during sales with all the hidden ticket fees. Additionally there is concern about vendors marketing as primary distributors, from both artist side and promoter side. All in all, it seems like there is definitely some unethical practices being used in the sale for live entertainment tickets. I did find it humorous however that all of the major ticket promoters either didn’t comment or released a statement about how supportive and happy they are of the investigation of any anti-competitive practices. It all seems very scripted and definitely like something else is up. I’m sure at the end of the investigation a couple big name companies will be hit with fines and then business will continue as usual. I will definitely be sure to keep my eye out for the resolution to this inquiry.
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