The Supreme Court of Canada is declining to listen to an appeal by TicketMaster and Live Nation who are currently facing a class-action lawsuit for profiting from third-party ticket reselling.
Ticketmaster and Live Nation have been accused of mass ticket scalping, or buying and reselling tickets, which goes against its own policy, The Canadian Press reports.
Resellers then use “ticket bots” to buy a quantity of tickets beyond the limits of what Ticketmaster allows for regular buyers.
Five class-action lawsuits in multiple provinces were launched against the companies in 2018, according to case documents.
The B.C. Court of Appeal reportedly condemned Ticketmaster’s pitch to professional scalpers in 2023 for using Tradesk, an inventory software product used by resellers to “validate and manage” tickets they sell on the company’s website.
The lawsuits claim reselling leads to ticket inflation, causing people to pay more than face value, which violates consumer protection legislation and the Competition Act, according to the Canadian Press.
“Face value refers to the price of the ticket (before fees and taxes are added). Artists, sports teams or promoters set the face value ticket price, which Ticketmaster doesn’t keep any portion of. They can also decide to change that price at any time,” Ticketmaster clarifies on its website.
The lead plaintiff in the case, David Gomel, purchased Bruno Mars concert tickets off StubHub, a secondary ticket seller and competitor of Ticketmaster, according to the case file.
Ticketmaster argued in an appeal that their purchase policy refers to people who use their website to buy tickets rather than “representations” to the public at-large.
“For resale tickets: the listing price is determined by the seller, which includes fans, season ticket holders, and professional resellers. Often a resale price exceeds the initial face value set by the artist or team,” Ticketmaster’s website says.
The company claimed that hearing its appeal would clarify whether website terms of use are enough evidence to prove claims of misrepresentation to the public.
The Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear the appeal, upholding the B.C. Court of Appeal’s July 2023 ruling.
