Memo from the Boss: don’t mess with my fans.

Ticketmaster reached a national settlement yesterday after an investigation by New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram, a call for antitrust hearings from Representative Bill Pascrell, and an order to ‘cease and desist’ from The Boss himself. As reported in NJ.com, disgruntled fans called the Attorney General’s office by the hundreds after attempting to purchase tickets for the upcoming Bruce Springsteen concert from Ticketmaster’s website on February 2. Customers hoping to buy tickets through the lottery system were redirected without warning to the website of TicketsNow, a subsidiary of Ticketmaster and a secondary seller. There, tickets were offered at considerably higher prices – up to a 400 percent markup in some cases – despite the availability of face value tickets at the time.


Although Ticketmaster admitted to no wrongdoing, they have issued a public apology and will be making 2,000 tickets available for sale through lottery to customers who filed complaints; eligible customers unable to purchase tickets will be entitled to a $100 gift certificate. Customers who bought tickets at scalper prices are eligible for refunds. Ticketmaster is required to pay $350,000 in investigative and legal fees, and end an advertising practice where consumers searching for Ticketmaster on Google are referred instead to TicketsNow.

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What would it take for you to part with a pair of Springsteen tickets?












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21 replies on “NJ Slaps Ticketmaster in Springsteen Case”

  2. In the past I have been to many Springsteen concerts and enjoyed every one. However, now that his concerts are half music and half limousine liberal speech, I refuse to go and listen to an entertainer pontificate and push his political views on his audience.

  3. I”m offended by the term ‘bitchslap’..that is an african american term and its use by a whitey is racist. I’m going to ask Al Sharpton to boycott the Barista advertisers.

  6. So…. Ah…… “Bitchslap” is an appropriate term for a headline?
    I must say, I find the term degrading, crude and permissive of physical abuse directed towards women.
    I know, some use it freely and with a sly smile as if they just got away with something.
    And I am certainly no prude here, but considering the news– and photos of Rihanna– I find the caviler use here– on a headline of a popular blog in a (supposedly liberal, educated and informed) community, of no real worth or merit.

  9. I hope there are many more like you NoCorzine. Should make it easier for the rest of us to get tickets.
    This “investigation” into ticketmaster is a total sham and the payoff to the state to make it go away proves it. Ticketmaster now combined with Live Nation is free to continue their monopolistic anti-customer practices, such as charging 50% of the ticket price for convenience fees. They continue to link to TicketsNow for non-Sprinsteen events. They are a truly despicable company that represents the worst of corporate greed.

  10. Nator, enjoy the concert, but I pride myself on not listening to the people that make music to tell me who I should be voting for. Maybe that is just me, but I have a brain and can make up my own mind. Unfortunately, there are many Boss fans who will just do and think whatever he says.

  12. Lyric from “The Wrestler” by Bruce Springsteen
    Have you ever seen a one legged dog makin’ his way down the street
    If you’ve ever seen a one legged dog then you’ve seen me
    A one legged dog? It would have to drag itself down the street inch by inch, wouldn’t it, Boss?
    WNYC’s Soundcheck program had a hilarious discussion about this line a couple of weeks ago.
    Still, would anyone really trade Springsteen tickets for Bon Jovi tickets? Not even that dog would do it to get his three legs back.

  13. Bitchslap would have been innovative like five years ago.
    Ticketmaster has got to be the most ridiculous business going. How do they stay alive? The Internet should have wiped them out. Who needs a middleman now that any box office can sell tickets on the Web? Can anybody tell me how Ticketmaster is able to keep its monopoly? It just has to be mafia controlled.

  14. There is no Mafia (caps on the “m,” please), walleroo. There is LCN, however, which is on its last, wheezy legs. And many more oldish, innocent gentlemen of Sicilian descent who undergo persecution by the Federal government because of their ethnic origins.
    For those who wonder about the “purity” of Bruce Springsteen, please recall the criticism he got for recently vending a “greatest hits” collection in a K-Mart-only-available deal.
    Strangely, however, the Boss’s own fave music shop, Jack’s in Red Bank (which usually is open all night when a new Springsteen recording debuts, and where Brucie’s been known to show up and sign copies), also carries this very same new CD of his. They shouldn’t be allowed to, but somehow they do.
    Whether Springsteen really cares who purchases his tickets is doubtful. What he probably really worries about is who gets those 3000-5000 tickets held back every concert for him and his record label. This is how celebrities and politicians alike, the folks the Boss truly yearns to hang with, get their seats, after all.

  15. What would it take for me to give up a pair of Springsteen tix? How about the pair of tickets I meant to buy when accidentally clicking on the Springsteen tix?
    Yech. He was the worst part of the Superbowl this year.

  20. You’re right, gail, and you have my apologies for the error.
    Still, it’s also sold at Jack’s, and I wonder if the folks in Bentonville, Arkansas know that.

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