Canada’s Competition Bureau sues Ticketmaster, Live Nation, over ‘deceptive’ price practices

Canada’s Competition Bureau is suing events ticket seller Ticketmaster and its parent company Live Nation Entertainment Inc for “allegedly making deceptive claims to consumers when advertising prices for sports and entertainment tickets.”

In this case it’s for adding on "service fees" or "facility charges” or “order processing costs” in addition to the advertised ticket price.

Called “drip pricing," it’s a well known practice by ticketing companies around the world.

The Competition Bureau reckons that ticket agencies add up to 20% -- sometimes up to 65% -- on the price.

As a result, they make an additional “several hundred million dollars in a year in Canada.”

The Bureau is an independent law enforcement agency that ensures businesses operate in a competitive manner

In its application with the Competition Tribunal, it wants Ticketmaster and Live Nation to put "an end to the alleged deceptive marketing practices" and pay a fine.

It does not say how much that fine should be. But in a 2011 action against telco Bell Canada over “misrepresented prices” for some services, Bell ended up paying $10 million.

The Ticketmaster/Live Nation case is the first salvo by the Canadian authorities as lack of transparency when buying tickets has become a major issue in the last two years for exasperated customers and the music and sports industries.

"To promote continued innovation and growth in the digital economy, it’s critical that consumers have confidence that the prices they see online are the ones they will pay," said competition commissioner John Pecman.

Last month, Ontario passed a law that banned the use of the bots software to scoop up a huge amount of tickets, put a 150% cap on resold tickets, and be transparent about any extra charges.

It is not known when the law will go into effect.

In November, Alberta changed its laws to ban bots but had no additions about extra hidden charges.

Ticketmaster responded in a statement that it “remains committed to getting tickets into the hands of fans and has long practised transparency to enable informed purchasing decisions.”

It added it is working closely with provincial governments to enhance consumer protection.

Ticketmaster sold more than 480 million tickets worldwide in 2016