Editing Ticketmaster (section)

===Secret partnership with scalpers===
Ticketmaster has secretly partnered with [[Ticket resale|scalpers]] to drive up prices for consumers.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2018 |title='I'm getting ripped off': A look inside Ticketmaster's price-hiking bag of tricks |work=CBC |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/ticketmaster-prices-scalpers-bruno-mars-1.4826914}}</ref><ref name="o733">{{cite web |last=Pierce |first=David |date=2024-07-08 |title=Scalpers: always one step ahead of Ticketmaster. |url=https://www.theverge.com/2024/7/8/24194349/scalpers-always-one-step-ahead-of-ticketmaster |access-date=2024-09-03 |website=The Verge}}</ref><ref name="w553">{{cite web |last=Al-Heeti |first=Abrar |date=2018-09-20 |title=Ticketmaster teams with scalpers to rip you off, report says. Firm says no way |url=https://www.cnet.com/culture/ticketmaster-partners-with-scalpers-to-rip-you-off-two-undercover-reporters-say/ |access-date=2024-09-03 |website=CNET}}</ref> Economists characterize the [[Ticket resale|secondary market]] in tickets as socially wasteful [[rent-seeking]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Tam |first=Stephanie |title=Why Is the Live-Event Ticket Market So Screwed Up? |url=https://freakonomics.com/podcast/why-is-the-live-event-ticket-market-so-screwed-up/ |access-date=2022-03-16 |website=Freakonomics |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":8">{{Citation |last1=Agarwal |first1=Nikhil |title=Market design |date=2021 |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1573448X21000108 |work=Handbook of Industrial Organization |volume=5 |pages=1–79 |editor-last=Ho |editor-first=Kate |series=Handbook of Industrial Organization, Volume 5 |publisher=Elsevier |language=en |last2=Budish |first2=Eric |doi=10.1016/bs.hesind.2021.11.010 |isbn=9780323988872 |editor2-last=Hortaçsu |editor2-first=Ali |editor3-last=Lizzeri |editor3-first=Alessandro|url-access=subscription }}</ref> In the mid-2000s, Ticketmaster engaged in primary market auctions that reduced the rents involved in secondary market scalping –&nbsp;however, Ticketmaster ended these primary market auctions, opting instead to enter into the secondary market.<ref name=":8" />

In September 2018, the [[Toronto Star]] reported that Ticketmaster was not enforcing ticket limit rules on its resale platform, TradeDesk.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.npr.org/2018/09/20/649666928/ticketmaster-has-its-own-secret-scalping-program-canadian-journalists-report|title=Ticketmaster Has Its Own Secret 'Scalping Program,' Canadian Journalists Report|newspaper=NPR|date=September 20, 2018|access-date=2019-05-02|last1=Tsioulcas|first1=Anastasia}}</ref> Ticketmaster denied the allegations, saying it would examine its resale policies on TradeDesk, and that it "never allows ticket scalpers to buy tickets ahead of fans."<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/8478525/ticketmaster-responds-senate-letter|title=Ticketmaster Responds to Senate Letter Investigating Resale Controversy: Exclusive|magazine=Billboard|access-date=2019-05-02}}</ref> One month later, a group of customers filed a class action lawsuit against Ticketmaster.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/scalping-ticketmaster-class-action-lawsuit-731689/|title=Ticketmaster Faces Class-Action Lawsuit After Scalping Report|last=Wang|first=Amy|date=2018-10-01|magazine=Rolling Stone|access-date=2019-05-02}}</ref>

In July 2019, a report by [[Billboard (magazine)|''Billboard'']] revealed a strategy by [[Live Nation]], Ticketmaster's parent company, to secretly bypass placing certain tickets for sale on the primary market and instead, place them directly on resale sites "without giving fans a chance to buy them through normal channels at face value."<ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=Billboard|date=19 July 2019|title=Secretly Recorded Phone Call Offers Window Into How Live Nation Helped Metallica and Other Artists Place Tickets Directly On Resale Market|url=https://www.billboard.com/pro/live-nation-resale-market-secretly-recorded-phone-calls-concert-tickets}}</ref> The company acknowledged it has "facilitated the quiet transfer of concert tickets directly into the hands of resellers through the years, though only at the request of the artists involved."