CHICAGO (Legal Newsline) – An Illinois man alleges Ticketmaster is artificially inflated ticket prices.
Salvatore Vacarro filed a complaint on behalf of others similarly situated on Sept. 26 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division against Ticketmaster LLC alleging violation of Illinois Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act.
According to the complaint, "defendant is reselling (on its secondary exchange) the same tickets that it sold initially to resellers (on its primary exchange), thereby collecting multiple commissions per ticket, and even apparently creates and distributes 'doubledip bots' to resellers to allow them to purchase or repost these tickets automatically which ultimately artificially inflates the prices to consumers."
The plaintiff alleges he was "forced" to purchase tickets from a second-hand exchange and purchased sold-out Ticketmaster tickets from secondary sellers at an increased price.
The plaintiff holds Ticketmaster LLC responsible because the defendant allegedly makes misrepresentations on its website "in order to obscure that it is selling secondary market tickets at different prices than face value that were obtained with the knowledge of Ticketmaster by reseller entities using ticket purchasing software."
The plaintiff requests a trial by jury and seeks an amount to be proven at trial and such other relief as the court deems just, proper and equitable, including but not limited to compensatory damages, consequential damages, punitive damages, prejudgment interest, costs and expenses of suit. He is represented by Heather L. Blaise of Blaise & Nitschke P.C. in Chicago.
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division case number 1:18-cv-06574