Ticketmaster facing lawsuit following ticket scalping accusations

Ticketmaster is now facing a lawsuit following allegations that it was working with online ticket scalpers.

Read more: Green Day fans still trolling Billie Joe Armstrong because it’s October 1

Ticketmaster was accused of working behind-the-scenes with online ticket scalpers in an effort to gain more commission revenue by an undercover story from reporters for CBC News and the Toronto Star.

According to the report, Ticketmaster allowed scalpers to have more than one account to secure tickets. They then resold them on its secondary-market site TradeDesk.

Ticketmaster’s president Jared Smith commented on the accusations, stating the company would to investigate its own policies regarding the secondary-market.

Smith also claimed that many people don’t understand what resale is and how important of a role it plays.

“They believe that all resale is bad and scalpers are buying tickets and selling them for massive profit,” he says. “The reality is, there’s a clear distinction in the resale market between ticket brokers, generally, most of which are legitimate and play a role in the ecosystem that lots of people rely upon.”

Smith also assured the claim they’re trying to profit twice is inaccurate. While they do profit via TradeDesk, it’s a small portion of their income.

“Resale is a much, much smaller portion of where the company makes money,” he says. “The resale market does exist and it needs to be serviced and if we weren’t in it then other people would be.”

Now, the company is facing a lawsuit. The complaint, filed in a California federal court, states that Ticketmaster has been working with scalpers for profit.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the plaintiff is suing Ticketmaster and its parent company Live Nation for “unfair business practices and unjust enrichment.”

Plus, the proposed class is: “All end-user purchasers in the United States who purchased a secondary market Ticketmaster ticket from a professional reseller participating in Ticketmaster’s resale partner program and/or using TradeDesk or a similar system operated by defendants, such as EventInventory or eimarketplace.”

Ticketmaster has yet to comment on the lawsuit.