Springsteen Fans Show Ticketmaster Who’s Boss

Nationwide ticket vendor Ticketmaster has agreed to change how it sells tickets online after a run in with New Jersey fans of rocker Bruce Springsteen.

Ticketmaster and the attorney general’s office in New Jersey, Springsteen’s home state, have reached a voluntary agreement settling allegations about higher-than-normal processing fees charged for a pair of recent Springsteen concerts held in that state.

When Springsteen fans went on line to buy tickets to the concerts, held May 21 and May 23, 2008 at East Rutherford’s Izod Center, they were redirected from the main Ticketmaster site to an affiliated site, TicketsNow, which charged more of a processing fee per ticket without making the price difference clear to ticket buyers, which is a violation of New Jersey’s consumer fraud laws, state officials said.

Instead of buying tickets at face value on the Ticketmaster site for between $65 and $95, fans directed to the TicketsNow site were offered tickets for between $200 and $5,000 each.

At the time, Springsteen and his E Street Band said on the band’s web site that they were “furious” about their fans being made to pay more per ticket to see them play.

Ticketmaster said a computer software glitch was blamed for redirecting the fans. The changes in Ticketmaster’s online ticket-selling policy involving tickets sold by secondary, affiliated sites will apply nationwide, officials said.

Ticketmaster did not admit wrongdoing, but agreed to pay the state $350,000. The ticket seller also agreed to compensate about 2,200 ticket holders who were overcharged for the Springsteen concert.

No related posts.