Ticketmaster Denies Running Its Own Scalping Scheme

Ticketmaster responded to the claim that it was running its own scalping scheme, calling the suggestion “categorically untrue” and adding that an “internal review” of its “professional reseller accounts” system had already been underway.

An investigation by CBC News and the Toronto Star this week presented the allegation that Ticketmaster recruited resellers to a service called TradeDesk, which allowed it to get round buying limits and offer event tickets at inflated prices, with Ticketmaster receiving income from both the original and the secondary sale.

The report cited the example of a $209.50 ticket, resold via TradeDesk at $400, which, they said, netted Ticketmaster $25.25 from its first sale and a further $76 from the second.

“It is categorically untrue that Ticketmaster has any program in place to enable resellers to acquire large volumes of tickets at the expense of consumers,” the company said in a statement. “Ticketmaster’s Seller Code of Conduct specifically prohibits resellers from purchasing tickets that exceed the posted ticket limit for an event. In addition, our policy also prohibits the creation of fictitious user accounts for the purpose of circumventing ticket limit detection in order to amass tickets intended for resale.”

The statement described TradeDesk as “Ticketmaster’s professional reseller product that allows resellers to validate and distribute tickets to multiple marketplaces.” The company appeared to accept that “an employee” had “acknowledged being aware of some resellers having as many as 200 TradeDesk accounts” and added, “We do not condone the statements made by the employee as the conduct described clearly violates our terms of service.”

The statement noted that the company had already "begun an internal review of our professional reseller accounts and employee practices to ensure that our policies are being upheld by all stakeholders. Moving forward we will be putting additional measures in place to proactively monitor for this type of inappropriate activity.”