Venues battle with online ticket resellers

U.S. sites selling local entertainment tickets at steep markups to unwitting fans

KITCHENER — If you want to see Lindsey Buckingham’s only Canadian concert, you can buy a ticket for as little as $56.50. Or you can pay $162 for the same seat.

The choice is yours.

Venues like Kitchener’s Centre in the Square say they’re in a battle with American ticket resale websites that dramatically inflate the price of local concerts.

It’s a chronic problem and big-name shows like those from Buckingham, the lead guitarist from Fleetwood Mac who plays Centre in the Square Nov. 16, only reinforce how difficult it is to stop.

“This is something we’ve been fighting tooth and nail against,” said Will Muir, marketing manager for Centre in the Square.

“It’s extremely frustrating, and it’s very commonplace, unfortunately. We battle this non-stop.”

Shortly after taking office, the Ford government scrapped a portion of the Ticket Sales Act that would have made it illegal to resell live music and sporting event tickets at markups of more than 50 per cent above face value.

While the law still bans scalper bots from purchasing tickets, third-party sellers remain a constant source of irritation for local venues and presenters.

“Things were going on the right path to protect the consumer, but in recent months, it’s kind of taken a step back,” Muir said.

In some cases, websites like ticketoffices.com and vividseats.com were selling tickets to Lindsey Buckingham’s Nov. 16 concert in Kitchener at a 150 per cent markup over comparable seats from KWTickets, Centre in the Square’s online ticket portal.

Often, consumers aren’t aware they’re paying an inflated price to a website that’s unaffiliated with the venue or the artist. It’s

an issue affecting everything from the Kitchener Rangers to the Stratford Festival to local theatre.

“It’s increasingly a problem for us,” said Sam Varteniuk, executive director of The Registry Theatre.

“It’s an issue we face a lot. Some of those third-party vendors are particularly nefarious.”

Varteniuk said it’s difficult for small operators to prevent U.S.based resellers from hiking the price for local entertainment. He recommends people contact the venue itself if they’re unclear where they should be buying tickets.

Part of the problem is that third-party vendors often pay for the top search result in Google, and trick consumers into thinking they’re the official seller, Muir said.

He said he spends hours every week trying to combat these sellers, flagging Google about deceptive accounts and requiring tickets purchased in the U.S. to be picked up in person.

“In the old days, it was scalpers standing in the park outside the Centre. Now, it’s online, it’s quicker and it’s much more deceptive,” he said.

One tip-off for consumers is that third-party websites almost always charge in U.S. dollars.

“If you’re paying U.S. dollars, that’s a sign it’s a third-party vendor,” he said.

Venues say their ability to fight back against ticket resellers was diminished when the Ford government lifted the cap on ticket resales. Under the scrapped portion of the Ticket Sales Act, vendors would have been required to disclose the original price of the ticket.

It’s difficult to track how many tickets are being sold through third-party vendors, Muir said. But once a consumer finds out they overpaid, they usually contact the venue to vent.

“Ultimately, our box office staff take the brunt of it,” he said.

“We’re trying to price tickets at an affordable rate, so that the customer has a positive experience starting from the moment they purchase their ticket. This stuff makes that very difficult.”