Ticketmaster find Cure for Complaint

Ticketmaster have been cleared of any wrongdoing by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), following complaints over the availability of tickets to see The Cure (pictured) at a Teenage Cancer Trust show at the Royal Albert Hall in March this year.

Fans are claiming that they tried to buy tickets as soon as they were available but found none available and were conveniently redirected to a resale platform owned and operated by Ticketmaster. What were the chances of such a weird coincidence?

Of course, these tickets were significantly more expensive as tickets tend to be once they appear on the secondary market. Ticketmaster said it was allocated only some of the tickets available for sale for the event in question and confirmed that its tickets had been available to purchase from its website and call centre from 9:30 am on the date of sale in January this year, selling three quarters of them by 9.45am. The remaining tickets were either already sold by its call centre or sitting in customers’ online shopping baskets pending purchase.

ASA stated that it was “Satisfied that the evidence supplied indicated that tickets for the concert had been available through Ticketmaster from 9:30 am on 31 January and had been sold by that company directly to individual customers”.

What the case didn’t address was that the lines between primary and secondary are increasingly blurred to the average customer. Also, if Ticketmaster operate both the primary and secondary platform, surely the allocation to the primary site is entirely up to them? ASA did not add that at least said fans did not have to endure a 45 song, three hour plus set from ‘laughing’ Robert Smith and co, however many smart pop hits they may have once had.