Ticketmaster Will Pay $4.5 Million for Misleading Pricing Case in Canada

You know how sometimes you jump on Ticketmaster all giddy because you’re about to buy some siqqq concert tickets advertised for $30? But then you log-in, add the tickets to your cart, check out, and find out that you have to pay fees. Convenience fees, breathing fees, fees to exist. And your ticket jumps from $30 to something closer to $45. Well, customers in Canada have just aboot had it, and they’re fining Ticketmaster $4.5 million for misleading pricing practices.

After a thorough investigation by Canada’s Competition Bureau, they found that Ticketmaster’s advertised prices were deceptively inflated by 20% to as much as 65% of the original cost due to mandatory service and processing fees that are only revealed at the end of the ticket buying process, a deceptive pricing practice called “drip pricing.”

Consequently, Ticketmaster will be paying $4 million in penalty fees and $500,000 to the Competition Bureau for costs incurred during its investigation of the misleading pricing claims. Canada has asked all sporting and entertainment vendors to “review their marketing practices and display the real price of tickets upfront.”

This is what Ticketmaster gets for disrupting Canadian peace. Canada 1, Ticketmaster 0.

[via Consequence of Sound]