Ticketing resale platforms Ticket Galaxy and TicketNetwork have agreed to pay $1.55m (£121m/€1.35m) to settle a lawsuit brought by New York’s Attorney General.
The providers had been accused of selling “speculative tickets” that were not yet in their inventories for concerts and live events.
Ticket Galaxy, TicketNetwork and their owner Donald Vaccaro did not admit liability in the settlement, although the companies said that they were pleased that the settlement had provided “certainty” regarding their practices.
Ticket Galaxy and TicketNetwork have been ordered to improve disclosures to consumers in the future.
It was claimed that, from January 2012 to April 2018, New York consumers unknowingly placed more than 96,000 orders for speculative tickets, with about one-third of the total processed by Ticket Galaxy.
The defendants insisted that it was normal for companies to sell tickets that they expected to eventually receive.
“We are holding these companies accountable for their deceptive practices that swindled New Yorkers out of their hard-earned money and are putting in place reforms to protect ticket buyers in the future,” Attorney General Letitia James (pictured) said.
James’ predecessor, Barbara Underwood, sued Ticket Galaxy and TicketNetwork last September.
Image credit: Matt Cohen
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