Ticketmaster Entertainment Inc. and Live Nation Inc. officially joined forces in 2009; yet, are still raising concerns to live entertainment goers over ticket fees that seem contrary to initial promises of lower ticket prices with the merge.
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For many years, Ticketmaster Entertainment Inc. has landed at the top of concert ticket Google searches, not to mention controlling the majority of all live entertainment ticket sales over the past 10 years. Live Nation Inc. was it’s only direct competitor until the merge in 2009 that made claims to “expand live entertainment options to audiences throughout the world,”
according to chairman of Ticketmaster Entertainment, Barry Diller, which in a sense, wasn’t untrue. The merge of Ticketmaster Entertainment Inc. and Live Nation Inc. to create Live Nation Entertainment broadened the possibilities of live entertainment worldwide; yet, it also raised concerns over who the direct beneficiaries actually are—the consumers in search of a great live show at a reasonable cost, or Live Nation Entertainment through deceptive ticket fees.
Ticketmaster Entertainment has been to court on numerous occasions over ticket prices, most notably
Pearl Jam’s claim against the ticket mogul in June of 1994. Pearl Jam’s case included the claim that, “many of Pearl Jam's most loyal fans are teenagers who do not have the money to pay the $50 or more that is often charged today for tickets to a popular concert.” Going on to explain that, “although, given our popularity, we could undoubtedly continue to sell-out our concerts with ticket prices at that premium level, we have made a conscious decision that we do not want to put the price of our concerts out of the reach of many of our fans.” Pearl Jam went on to hold a live performance for their fans in Indio, California, not under the jurisdiction of Ticketmaster Entertainment, that later coined the idea for the
Coachella Music and Arts Festival.
Below is a shot of the fee breakdown from
Ticketmaster.com to give an insight from the seller's standpoint:
Contrary to Ticketmaster's "anatomy of a ticket purchase," in October of 2010, Live Nation Entertainment was hit with another class-action lawsuit for it’s deceptive fees. According to AOL reports,
The lawsuit out of California was filed in 2003 and in 2010 gained national class-action status challenging Ticketmaster’s “Order Processing Fee” and other fee’s affiliated with purchasing tickets through the Ticketmaster interface. Many defendants have come forward claiming various fee’s tacked onto ticket purchases, including Curt Schlesinger, who was charged $19.50 for a UPS fee for ticket delivery when the actual UPS rate was only $16.35, declaring an extra $3.15 pocketed by Ticketmaster. Furthermore, the Ticketmaster site makes no statement within its fee descriptions of how UPS delivery fees are accessed, deeming the fee deceptive to consumers.
In January of 2011,
Ticketmaster settled on the class-action lawsuit and is set to award many previous ticket purchasers with reimbursements via standard mail. The settlement may also issue consumers with discounts for future ticket purchases. However, numerous fees are still attributed to ticket purchases through Live Nation Entertainment (both the Ticketmaster Inc. and Live Nation Inc. interfaces) and are subject to additional claims. As of May 2011,
Ticketmaster fees have enraged consumers raising the bar to upwards of $19 in processing and handling fees according to Daniel Bates.
By the looks of it, live entertainment will always come at an extra cost. The choice remains in the hands of the consumer and whether they are willing to pay the extra fee for live entertainment.
