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U.S. House Committee’s ticketing probe ‘validates concerns’

The U.S Energy and Commerce Committee will hold a hearing on the live event ticketing industry on February 26 in Washington D.C.

The hearing, which has been named ‘In the Dark: Lack of Transparency in the Live Event Ticketing Industry,’ has been announced following a bipartisan investigation late last year into practices in the industry.

As part of the investigation, the Committee requested detailed information and documents pertaining to the ticketing policies and practices of Live Nation, Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG), StubHub, Vivid Seats, TicketNetwork, and Tickets.com.

“We launched our bipartisan investigation because of concerns about potentially unfair and deceptive practices occurring in the primary and secondary ticket marketplace. Unfortunately, the investigation has thus far validated our concerns,” chairman of the committee Frank Pallone, Jr. said.

“Consumers face a number of disturbing practices in the industry, including a systemic lack of transparency and fairness. This hearing will give us the opportunity to hear directly from companies about troubling practices in the live event ticketing marketplace and push them to put consumers first going forward.”

The probe, which was announced in November, has looked into those practices “which have been documented in consumer complaints, press stories, and government reports.”

The committee’s concerns surrounding resale include the sale of speculative tickets, as well as deceptive third-party websites, while its primary market issues include the disclosure of available inventory and a lack of transparency about availability.

Image: Martin Falbisoner