Attending the Bruno Mars concert in Toronto last Saturday was expected to be costly, but many of the 17,000 fans who secured tickets may not realize that Ticketmaster, in addition to scalpers, played a role in inflating prices.
An investigation by CBC News and the Toronto Star uncovered Ticketmaster’s tactics, including collaborating with scalpers, to enhance profits at the expense of music enthusiasts.
Data analysts monitored Ticketmaster’s platform for seven months leading up to the Scotiabank Arena event, meticulously observing seat availability and pricing to understand the inner workings of the ticketing system.
Key findings of the investigation include:
- Not all available seats are listed at the start of a sale.
- Prices are increased during the sale period.
- Service fees are charged twice for tickets resold on Ticketmaster.
“I feel like I’m being taken advantage of,” expressed 31-year-old Ajay Saulnier, a devoted Bruno Mars fan and impersonator from Hamilton, reacting to the investigation’s revelations that left him disheartened, especially as he found the ticket prices unaffordable.
“It’s unjust to the public. They are solely focused on enriching themselves,” Saulnier added.
Trick 1: Dynamic Price Changes
Scalpers are commonly criticized for significantly raising ticket prices above the face value set by the box office.
However, Ticketmaster also engages in price hikes during sales.
Within minutes of the tickets going on sale on Feb. 16 at noon, the arena seemed almost fully booked, with remaining tickets priced at $500 or up to $2,500 for front-row seats.
As fans rushed to secure tickets, Ticketmaster followed a tactic akin to scalpers by raising prices for certain seats.
Thirty-two seats were part of Ticketmaster’s “platinum tickets” program, with a notification on the website indicating that “Platinum Tickets are tickets that are dynamically priced up and down based on demand.”
The pop-up fails to disclose the original price or face value, leaving buyers without crucial information to evaluate the ticket’s value.
CBC also identified 120 non-platinum tickets that rose from $191.75 to $209.50 after the sale commenced.
“That’s absolutely terrible. They should not be doing that,” Saulnier remarked. “They don’t need to be making this much money off a ticket just for us to see an hour show.”
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