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Missouri Sues Hannah Montana Scalpers

Parents complained $26 tickets were going for $254

By Lisa Wade McCormick
ConsumerAffairs.com

October 5, 2007

Nixon also announced his office reached an agreement with Ticketmaster to sell approximately 2,000 additional tickets to the young pop star’s shows in those cities.

ConsumerAffairs.com has received numerous complaints from frustrated Hannah Montana fans nationwide. Consumers told us they were unable to purchase tickets to the teen idol’s show -- even though they were online or on the phone the moment the tickets went on sale.

Fans, however, said they could easily find Hannah Montana tickets at various brokers or on eBay. The prices were drastically inflated, though.

“I was on TicketMaster 20 minutes before the Hannah Montana tickets went on sale at 10:00a.m.,” one parent from Nottingham, Maryland, wrote us. “They were sold out at 10:01! My friends were also on the Web site at the same time and had problems.

“Ten minutes later, the tickets were on eBay selling for triple the price. I am very upset that they allow people to sell these tickets online to make money, and my daughter, who is a true fan, can't go because I can't afford to spend $300 per ticket.”

Missouri’s attorney general said his office received similar complaints from approximately 30 consumers who tried to buy tickets to Hannah Montana’s upcoming concerts, scheduled for October 18 in St. Louis and December 3 in Kansas City.

Quick sell-outs

Consumers said when they attempted to buy tickets on line or over the phone -- at the designated times the tickets went on sale -- they discovered the shows were already sold out.

Missouri fans, however, said they immediately found scores of Hannah Montana tickets at various brokers for prices up to 20 times the face values.

Attorney General Nixon sued three ticket brokers for allegedly scalping Hannah Montana tickets: GoTickets Inc. and Tickets Now Entertainment Group Inc., both of Springfield, Illinois, and Ticket Solutions Inc. of Overland Park, Kansas.

Investigators from Nixon’s office purchased tickets from these online brokers to the teen idol’s Kansas City concert. They paid $254, $257, and $305 for tickets that had a face value of either $26 or $56.

Nixon’s lawsuits, filed in the Jackson County, Missouri, Circuit Court, alleged the brokers violated the state’s consumer protection laws by scalping tickets. The sale of tickets at prices far above the face values is a violation of a Kansas City municipal ordinance that prohibits scalping.

After November 28, however, ticket scalping in Kansas City will no longer be illegal.

The Missouri Legislature recently passed a measure that legalized these types of sales in the state. Some legislators, though, have said they may try to overturn that law in the next session, which convenes in January.

Blatant rip-off

In the meantime, Nixon said ticket scalping is still illegal.

It's also unfair to consumers.

“These companies are able to employ inappropriate means, using sophisticated software, to hoard all the tickets to high-demand events and then turn around and sell them at grossly inflated prices,” the attorney general said.

“It’s a blatant rip-off of consumers who attempt to purchase tickets in good faith through the proper means and are met with nothing but frustration.”

ConsumerAffairs.com checked Ticket Solutions’ Web site today and found tickets to Hannah Montana’s Kansas City concert for as much as $550 each. We contacted the company this morning, but the owner did not return our call.

We also checked GoTickets Inc.’s Web site and found tickets to Hannah Montana’s concert in St. Louis for as much at $1,345 each. When we called the company, the person who answered the phones told us we needed to e-mail our questions. The company had not responded to our inquiry by late this afternoon.

ConsumerAffairs.com also checked Tickets Now Entertainment Group’s Web site for Hannah Montana tickets. That online broker had tickets to the pop star’s St. Louis show for as much as $1,177 each. Tickets Now Entertainment Group had not answered our questions about the lawsuit by late this afternoon.

Ticketmaster agreement

In related news, Attorney General Nixon announced an agreement with Ticketmaster that gives Hannah Montana fans renewed hope of getting the much-coveted tickets.

Under the agreement, Ticketmaster will make approximately 2,000 additional tickets to Hannah Montana’s concerts in Kansas City and St. Louis available to the public through what the attorney general called “a balanced and fair distribution system.” The tickets are currently being held by the artist’s promotion company.

Nixon said approximately 1,000 additional tickets to Hannah Montana’s show in St. Louis will go on sale at 10 a.m. on October 13. An additional 1,000 tickets to the pop star’s Kansas City concert will go on sale at 10 a.m. on October 20.

Consumers can purchase a maximum of two tickets to the concerts through Ticketmaster’s Web site or over the phone.

To prevent scalping, consumers must go to the venue’s box office on the concert date and present photo identification and the credit card they used for payment.

“By requiring purchasers to appear at the box office and provide credit card and photo ID verification, we also are minimizing the impact that would-be scalpers will have on these sales,” Nixon said. “If these ticket brokers are rendered unable to hijack the system, real fans get the tickets at the prices set by the artists.”

Nixon said he worked out this agreement so fans had a chance to get Hannah Montana tickets – at a fair price. “We wanted to make sure that a lot of frustrated moms and dads, with their disappointed kids, had the opportunity to purchase tickets to these concerts at face value.”

One Missouri fan, who couldn’t get Hannah Montana tickets for her eight-year-old daughter, applauded Nixon’s action.

“I think it’s great,” said Claire N. of Kansas City. “I hope it will put a stop to the ticket scalpers.”

Claire told us she’ll try again to get Hannah Montana tickets, but she’s not optimistic about her chances. “One-thousand tickets isn’t going to be enough. There are still going to be a lot of upset people.”

Nixon isn’t the only attorney general cracking down on brokers that allegedly scalp Hannah Montana’s concert tickets.

Arkansas probe

The Arkansas attorney general recently launched an investigation into the sale of these tickets to determine if some online brokers violated that state’s scalping laws.

“I have a young daughter, and I really wish I could fix this problem for all the parents with disappointed kids right now,” Attorney General Dustin McDaniel said. “However, what our investigation reveals thus far is that many of the tickets intended to be sold directly to Arkansas consumers were diverted to as yet unidentified bulk purchasers.”

McDaniel said he learned of allegations that at least one company is selling a software product that allows users to breach Ticketmaster’s online system. Users who have this software, he said, can “cut in line” ahead of legitimate customers and block access to tickets at the site.

Sales at the box office are also tied into the Ticketmaster system, McDaniel said, and it’s possible that users of this software were able to block the full number of tickets intended to be available at the box office.

McDaniel also warned consumers that some tickets offered for sale on the Internet might be bogus. Some online ticket sellers might not have the tickets they’re selling, he cautioned, while other might sell counterfeit tickets.

Tips for ticket-buyers

McDaniel offered the following tips to consumers buying tickets online:

• Know who you’re dealing with. Web sites have certain guidelines that resellers must follow, but not all sites verify ticket authenticity before permitting users to post them for sale;

• Avoid paying the seller directly with cash or a check. Many auction sites use separate services to handle the payment, which usually requires the use of a credit card. If purchases are made through a separate service or with a credit card, the consumer is more likely to have some recourse to dispute the charge if the tickets turn out to be bogus;

• Research the seller and the Web site. Web sites that display the Better Business Bureau seal usually have a buyer protection program. Consumers should also find out if the seller has a history of satisfied customers.

“While there will always be issues relating to ticket availability where demand exceeds supply, the process must be fair to consumers,” Attorney General McDaniel said. “With these ticket sales, there is the additional problem that many are being offered on the Internet at prices far above the face value.

"In many instances, Arkansas law prohibits resale at prices over the face value plus a reasonable handling charge.”

McDaniel, however, said it’s sometimes difficult to enforce ticket scalping laws with Internet transactions because the sellers may be in another state or country.

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