If you are a regular live event goer, this may have happened to you before. You see tickets for the concert or event you want to go to advertising at a specific price, but when you actually go to the website where the tickets are being sold the price is way higher after fees, or you are directed to another website where the tickets are priced much higher. Well, you aren’t alone and according to the CBC, Canada’s competition regulator is in the process of suing Ticketmaster and its parent company Live Nation for allegedly misleading consumers on the prices for sports and entertainment tickets.
The Competition Bureau ran an investigation and discovered that Ticketmaster’s advertised prices are deceptive in nature due to the fact that consumers end up paying way more for the ticket after mandatory fees and processing duties are added to the ticket price later in the buying process.
The Commissioner of Competition – John Peco is quoted as saying “In July, we called on ticket vendors to review their marketing practices. Today, we are filing an application with the [Competition] Tribunal to stop Ticketmaster from making deceptive claims to consumers,”. If Bureau is successful in their claim, you can expect changes to come int eh ticketing industry which will in turn hopefully make tickets for live events more affordable in the future.
Source: CBC