revealreporter

Great question! Fees were among the most commonly complained-about issue in the whole constellation of problems with this market. The short answer is that there are very few rules governing where companies set their fees. In fact, at a Congressional hearing last February, representatives from Stubhub, Vivid Seats and TicketNetwork all admitted that "the market" is the main driver of what they charge in fees. In other words, they're all locked into a game of chicken with each other. These companies might argue that competition drives prices down; but a lot of government studies have found these fees more often add up to a significant markup.

Meanwhile, as I mention in the piece, there are ways government regulations have alleviated this issue in the past: Like in 2011, when the federal Department of Transportation forced the airline industry to adopt an all-in pricing model that requires carriers to disclose a ticket’s total price – including fees – in their advertising, on websites and on e-ticket confirmations. At least in that case the consumer knows what she's getting herself into right up front.

INTERESTING. You know TicketMaster got in trouble for what you're describing in Canada, right? This was back in 2018. https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/ticketmaster-resellers-las-vegas-1.4828535

You don't happen to have any screenshots/documents showing this, do you?

The short answer is: As many as they can possibly scoop up, provided that the event is desirable enough for them to make a profit. As I mention in the piece, brokers who use bots are capable of buying literally thousands of tickets in a matter of minutes.

Additionally, at least one secondary marketplace – Vivid Seats – admitted to me that they have no way of differentiating which tickets on their site were purchased initially with bots. There's no way for them to tell what was acquired illegitimately at the initial onsale.

Yes, companies involved in the reselling take a percentage of what resellers earn when they mark up tickets on the site. I believe that varies by marketplace.

And finally, yes. The BOTS Act, passed in 2016, was supposed to crack down on bot use. The problem is, it went years without being enforced. Now, there's something called the BOSS Act (named after Bruce Springsteen, I believe), which is more sweeping and aims to rein in many of these practices.

It's absolutely the status quo now, and has been for years. The question of "will it be fixed" is a little more complicated. There is indeed proposed legislation – something called the BOSS Act – that aims to rein in a bunch of these practices. It is stalled at the moment.

I would always recommend doing your best to find the OFFICIAL team or venue website first. Because those tickets are being sold – not RE-sold at a profit – there's no middleman looking to make a profit by marking them up.

That being said, sometimes tickets are legitimately sold out, but available on the secondary market for a premium. To a certain extent, that's just economics in action.

And, finally, it is possible to find deals on the secondary market! If, for example, an event is just hours away and brokers haven't sold all their inventory, they may lower prices by a LOT to just avoid eating the cost they've already incurred. So if you're OK with committing last-minute to a game or concert, it doesn't hurt to look at the secondary market just hours before the event starts. You might find a desperate broker looking to offload inventory and break even!