We all know that Ticketmaster’s monopoly on the ticketing business is a force for good. Let’s count the ways we love them:
1. Order processing charges
2. Involuntary parking fees
3. Nonexistent customer service
4. Impossible-to-read Captcha filters
5. TicketsNow, Ticketmaster’s in-house ticket scalping service
6. Merger with Live Nation...
Ugh, let me just skip to #33
33. TicketsNow sites that pretend to be venue websites
Unfortunately for those of us in the Ticketmaster Official Fan Club, the Attorney General of Illinois (TicketsNow's hometown) has forcibly removed Reason #33 from the list in a $50,000 lawsuit against Ticketmaster. According to The Consumerist, Ticketmaster must close Ticketsnow sites that use domain names that include the names of venues and bands, where ticket buyers beleived they were buying their tickets at face value from the source rather than at inflated prices from TicketsNow. But let’s be honest: it’s hardly our beloved Ticketmaster’s job to coddle the ignorant public!
The settlement also requires that TicketsNow wait to sell marked-up tickets until after Ticketmaster puts the tickets on sale at regular price. This sounds like a case of big bad government meddling in private industry, something we here at Tiny Mix Tapes staunchly oppose on the basis that it’s mean. Ticketmaster needs all the money it can get, especially because it no longer has real competition in the ticketing market.
