TORONTO, Ontario (CelebrityAccess) Canada’s Commissioner of Competition is continuing its lawsuit against Ticketmaster and parent company Live Nation regarding alleged deceptive claims to consumers for event tickets.
The watchdog agency filed a lawsuit against TM in January alleging that the company’s advertised ticket prices were deceptive because the additional fees were added after the consumer agreed to a price during the online purchasing procedure. Mandatory fees often inflate the advertised price by more than 20 percent and,in some cases, by more than 65 percent, the bureau claimed. The legal action follows a public statement from last July.
On Tuesday, the bureau filed with the Competition Tribunal, challenging a claim by TM and Live Nation that the service fee procedure was common, according to the Canadian Press.
“Any bald suggestion that consumers would somehow be able to divine the actual cost of tickets before the Respondents choose to reveal them is simply incorrect,” the commissioner reportedly said in the filing. “Many other e-commerce companies, when promoting other products to consumers, present prices that are in fact attainable as the first price consumers see.”
Ticketmaster and Live Nation did not respond to the Canadian Press for comment but had previously insisted that the bureau is ether misunderstanding or misconstruing the “standard” ticket process.
“Ticketmaster never suggests or implies that there are no fees associated with a consumer’s purchase. The opposite is true,” it said in a response to the application the bureau originally filed. “Consumers who purchase tickets online are aware that they will pay fees above the unit price of a ticket.”
