Ticketmaster got caught in a big lie. Exposes from CBS News and the Toronto Star have shown the company has been hiring professional scalpers, even if those scalpers are using bots or enlisting other practices which violate Ticketmaster’s terms of service. The reports show the company launched a secretive ticket inventory system, TradeDesk, that lets scalpers upload high volumes of tickets and quickly resell them at the price of their choice. Catherine Martin, with Ticketmaster, released a statement, saying, “As long as there is an imbalance between supply and demand in live event tickets, there will inevitably be a secondary market.

As the world’s leading ticketing platform, representing thousands of teams, artists and venues, we believe it is our job to offer a marketplace that provides a safe and fair place for fans to shop, buy and sell tickets in both the primary and secondary markets.” A second, later statement reads (in part, see the full statement from Ticketmaster here: https://engt.co/2OCup5x), “It is categorically untrue that Ticketmaster has any program in place to enable resellers to acquire large volumes of tickets at the expense of consumers.” It’s notable that both the U.K. and New York state have set out to ban ticket bots.