It turns out the Canadian Competition Bureau is unhappy with Ticketmaster, a ticket sales and distribution company originally from Beverly Hills, California.
On June 27th, the Competition Bureau announced Ticketmaster would have to pay $4 million CAD in penalties for its misleading pricing representations, and $500,000 for covering investigation costs.
The Bureau said the vendor’s advertised prices are not legitimate because the platform adds extra fees during the check-out process. The additional charges are often more than 20 percent or even over 65 percent above advertised ticket prices.
The Bureau believes that the practice is deceptive although the platform disclosed the amount of extra fees before the end of the transaction.
Matthew Boswell, Commissioner of Competition, said in a statement that Canadians shouldn’t have to think twice when they see advertised prices of online tickets, and the agency will continue monitoring all online ticket vendors’ marketing practices.
Source: Competition Bureau
