NY AG Looking Into 'Speculative' Springsteen Tickets On StubHub, Other Ticket Resale Sites
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is looking into whether "speculative'' ticket listings for Bruce Springsteen's 2016 tour on ticket resale sites constitute deceptive advertising.
Schneiderman sent letters Monday to StubHub, TicketNetwork and Vivid Seats asking about the practice of offering seats on secondary markets when the seller may not possess the tickets.
Tickets for Springsteen's tour don't go on sale until Friday. But some of the potentially speculative tickets are listed for highly-inflated prices, including $4,000 at Blue Cross Arena in Rochester, $2,500 at the Times Union Center in Albany, as well as $5,800 at Madison Square Garden, according to Schneiderman's office.
"As you may know, speculative tickets are tickets that resellers offer for sale, despite not having a ticket in hand or even the right to a ticket," Schneiderman's office said in a letter to StubHub.
"When a speculative ticket is sold, the reseller tries to purchase an actual ticket, at a lower price, from a different source to provide to the buyer. The reseller pockets the difference between the price that he paid and the price at which he sold the ticket. Speculative tickets harm both consumers and the ticket industry. In many cases, consumers who purchase a speculative ticket do not receive the seats that were advertised and paid for. In some cases, consumers receive no tickets at all. Speculative ticket sales also drive up prices for consumers, and often cause widespread confusion and frustration among consumers, who wonder how tickets can appear on the resale market before tickets are released to the public."
A TicketNetwork spokesman says the company has voluntarily taken down any ticket listings for the concerts until Friday.
Vivid Seats says it has a goal of ensuring a positive ticket-buying experience.
StubHub says it's reviewing the letter but has no reason to believe there are "speculative tickets'' on its site.
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