Live Nation, Ticketmaster may face ticketing charges in Europe

Major promoters and ticketing agencies are in the firing line as European authorities increasingly crack down on ticket scalping.

Some have already been fined, and now authorities are threatening prosecution.

In Milan, Italy, a damaging report on TV program Le Iene, on blatant ticketing irregularity has led to Milan State prosecutor Adriano Scudieri putting promoters Live Nation Italy and Vivo Concerti in the firing line.

Scudier has made two accusations against them.

Firstly that they made misleading comments to customers that concerts were close to selling out.

More seriously, Scudieri says they had “hidden agreements” with secondary ticketing site Viagogo to directly pass on tickets to sell at “unreasonably” high prices and netting €1.4 million as a result.

The allegations received widespread coverage in local media.

US magazine Pollstar reported that public and official indignation has been rising in the past 18 months.

In early January 2016, Claudio Trotta, owner of Italian promotion firm Barley Arts, filed a criminal complaint with the Public Prosecutor in Milan against numerous secondary ticketing websites after they mysteriously started selling unauthorised Bruce Springsteen tickets.

It resulted in charges against unknown persons for computer fraud and impersonation.

In October 2016 after two Coldplay stadium shows in Milan, authorities and Italian authors’ rights society SIAE suspected Live Nation Italy and the tours’ sole official ticket seller, Ticketone, of putting a large amount of tickets into the secondary market.

In April, five ticketing agencies were fined a total of €1.7 million by the Italian Competition Authority (AGCM) after it was asked by consumer group Altroconsumo to investigate allegations that primary seller TicketOne was passing tickets directly to the secondary market.

Pollstar also reported that Ticketmaster is facing similar accusations in Madrid, Spain, and the possibility of court action.

Madrid City Council has urged the region’s Department of Consumer Affairs to follow up a complaint by consumer rights organization FACUA after its investigation into ticketing rorts.

It too found that tickets for Springsteen and Bruno Mars were on secondary ticketing platforms right after they officially went on sale through Ticketmaster.

Madrid City Council also charged that Ticketmaster kept claiming to customers that the tours were selling out quickly, and, says Pollstar, “illicitly directing them to its own secondary ticketing site Seatwave, where primary tickets were placed at above face value prices.”