Last year, scores of angry Bruce Springsteen fans filed complaints against Ticketmaster with the FTC after they were unfairly redirected to the evil behemoth’s ticket reselling site TicketsNow, where customers were forced to pay through the nose for tickets to see the Boss perform in New Jersey. Well, the FTC and LiveNation arrived at a settlement in the case that will see the company shell out some $1 million in refunds to customers who were affected by this “bait and switch†practice, some of whom ended up paying over $1,600 for seats to see Springsteen and the E-Street Band on what may have been their last major worldwide concert tour. For those of us who watched dejectedly as Pearl Jam unsuccessfully battled the monolithic monopoly throughout most of the nineties, this news will no doubt result in a few moments of satisfaction. That said, we’re not very hopeful that this (sort of puny) judgment will do anything to curtail the company from continuing to tack on ridiculous service fees to every single ticket that they issue. Jerks!
FTC orders refunds to Springsteen ticket buyers, sweeping changes in ticket resale market [Company Town/LAT]