Trenton, NJ -- Attorney General
Anne Milgram and Division of Consumer Affairs
Director David Szuchman announced today that
a random drawing for tickets to see one of
two Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
concerts in the Meadowlands in May will be
held March 31 for consumers who filed complaints
with the consumer affairs division in February
about Ticketmaster’s on-line sale of
tickets to the concerts.
The random ticket drawing
is part of a settlement with Ticketmaster
to resolve more than two thousand complaints
filed by consumers seeking to purchase tickets
to the Springsteen concerts.
The settlement created a random
drawing for consumers who filed complaints
against Ticketmaster with the Division of
Consumer Affairs as of Tuesday, February 17,
to purchase two tickets each to one of the
two concerts scheduled for May 21 and May
23 at the Izod Center. A total of 2,000 tickets
– 1,000 for each concert – are
available for the two concerts.
The agreement also mandated
reforms to Ticketmaster’s business practices.
Those consumers who filed
complaints but are not chosen in the March
31 random drawing for the opportunity to purchase
tickets to the May concerts will be given
a $100 Ticketmaster gift certificate and will
be given the opportunity to purchase two tickets
to a future Springsteen concert in New Jersey
prior to a general ticket sale.
The New Jersey Sports and
Exposition Authority will conduct the random
ticket selection with a representative from
the accounting firm Deloitte & Touche
on hand to observe the selection process.
The Division of Consumer Affairs
submitted 1,861 names to the sports authority
for the random ticket selection process after
carefully sorting through all its more than
2,200 complaints and removing from the drawing
consumers who already had obtained tickets.
Consumers will be randomly selected and randomly
matched with a pair of tickets to either the
May 21 or May 23 concert. Consumers may not
pre-select a concert date.
Once the random ticket selection
is completed, the selected consumers will
be notified by mail and sent a credit card
authorization form for the tickets. The forms
will be mailed on or about April 3. Forms
must be received back by the Sports Authority
no later than 5 p.m. April 16. Tickets will
be either $98 or $68 per ticket, with no Ticketmaster
fee charged. Tickets may only be picked up
the night of the concert at the Izod Center
box office. Consumers will have to submit
a photo ID and the credit card used to purchase
the tickets.
“This moves the process
forward in resolving the complaints of thousands
of Springsteen fans who were tripped up by
Ticketmaster’s website when tickets
first went on sale, and found that the only
tickets available were on a re-selling website
at a significantly higher cost,” said
Attorney General Milgram.
“The random drawing
is possible because of the cooperation of
the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority
in making tickets available,’’
added Consumer Affairs Director Szuchman.
An investigation by the Attorney
General and the Division of Consumer Affairs
into Ticketmaster’s sales practices
began with the immediate uproar over the sale
of Springsteen tickets when they were made
available for sale on Feb. 2. Consumers complained
that sales were blocked on the Ticketmaster
website and they were re-directed to the ticket
re-selling website called TicketsNow.com --
a Ticketmaster subsidiary -- where tickets
were available at substantially higher prices.
The state signed an Assurance of Voluntary
Compliance with Ticketmaster on Feb. 23 that
placed a wall between Ticketmaster and TicketsNow.com
for at least a year for all shows and entertainment
events Ticketmaster handles. After the conclusion
of the year, Ticketmaster will need prior
approval from the Attorney General for any
links between its “No Tickets Found”
Internet page to its TicketsNow re-sale website.
Ticketmaster
also agreed not to engage in paid Internet
search advertising that would lead consumers
searching for “Ticketmaster” on
Internet search engines to its TicketsNow
re-sale site. In addition, Ticketmaster confirmed
and agreed that all tickets it receives for
sale to the general public will be sold on
its primary market website. Ticketmaster also
agreed not to allow the sale or offer of sale
of any tickets on the TicketsNow.com re-selling
website until the initial sale begins on its
primary website.
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