Bruce Springsteen Zaps the touts - and unleashes the lawyers

Written on Thu 10 Dec 2015

Bruce Springsteen is the latest high-profile performer to put the boot in to ticket touts - and he’s called in the lawyers.

Tickets for his show in New York go on sale on Friday, but there are already tickets advertised for sale on StubHub and two other secondary sites. These so-called “speculative” ticket sales are likely to be advertised by people who don’t actually have a ticket for sale, but who plan on buying one.

According to a a report by Reuters News Agency lawyers acting for Team Springsteen wrote to the secondary sites asking them to remove them from sale, and have also asked the New York Attorney General to investigate the matter. The Attorney General seems to be taking it seriously, and they are aware that in many cases, consumers who purchase a speculative ticket do not receive the seats that were advertised and paid for.

A spokesman for StubHub repeated their feeble promise that if buyers don’t get their ticket on time they’ll provide better tickets (ha ha) or provide a refund. Which we think means that if you buy ‘speculative’ tickets then you should probably think twice before buying a flight or hotel.

A spokesman for one of the other secondary sites who was advertising speculative tickets said the company shared “the goal of ensuring a positive customer experience in ticket buying.”

We’re delighted that artists like Springsteen are taking positive action to stamp out the menace of touts. Undermining the secondary sites is a really spot-on approach. After all, if you laid out $5,000 for a Brucie ticket then the last thing you’d want is a refund.