House Commerce Members Debate Consumer Pitfalls for Online Ticketing
The internet has made event ticket purchasing more convenient, but consumers are also getting “ripped off,” said House Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., Wednesday. Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chair Diana DeGette, D-Colo., whose panel held the hearing, cited GAO…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
findings on difficulty buying tickets at face value because of hidden fees, a lack of transparency and misleading marketing. Consumers should be able to know whether a ticket is “dynamically priced,” and transfer limitations should be clearly disclosed, said committee ranking member Greg Walden, R-Ore. Subcommittee ranking member Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., considered an inability to see the total cost as a “minor inconvenience.” He raised larger issues like white label websites designed to fool consumers into thinking they're buying tickets directly from venues or artists. Ticketmaster, AXS and Vivid Seats officials testified their companies support all-in ticket pricing, so consumers know upfront what they're paying. StubHub General Counsel Stephanie Burns accused Ticketmaster of using its dominance to disable transferability and using consumer data to force purchases through its platform. StubHub believes consumers should have the option to buy transferable tickets at the initial point of sale, said Burns. Ticketmaster supports all-in pricing, bans speculative ticketing, reports deceptive websites and combat bots, said President Amy Howe. AXS supports all-in pricing, as long as it's applied equally to all sellers, said CEO Bryan Perez. Vivid Seats supports upfront, all-in ticket pricing on a level playing field, testified Vice President Ryan Fitts. Ancillary fees based on consumer purchase choices make it impossible to provide entirely all-in ticket pricing upfront, testified Tickets.com CEO Joe Choti.