More Ticket Settlements In NJ

Two New Jersey ticket brokers have settled with the state Attorney General’s office over a pair of lawsuits alleging the brokers offered concert tickets on their Web sites prior to official onsales.

Almost Backstage and Ticket Town have agreed to revise their respective business practices and pay $5,000 each to settle the suits, according to a statement released by AG Anne Milgram’s office.

The brokers also agreed to not attempt to sell tickets they don’t expressly own or have in their custody.

“We want to end the fraud committed against the public through the offering of phantom tickets,” Milgram said. “Our message to the ticket resale industry is very clear – it is fraud to sell something that you don’t have and may never have, while giving the public the impression that these tickets are yours to sell.”

While neither broker admitted any wrongdoing in reaching the settlements, complaints filed by the AG alleged Almost Backstage and Ticket Town advertised and sold marked-up tickets to Bruce Springsteen’s September and October concerts at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford before tickets were available to the public.

Similar suits against other sellers including Select-A-Ticket, Orbitz Worldwide’s cheaptickets.com and TicketNetwork are ongoing.

The recent settlements are only the latest in the AG’s continuing action against the concert ticket industry. Milgram’s office reached a settlement with Ticketmaster earlier this year in which the company agreed to not offer tickets on its subsidiary TicketsNow site prior to official TM onsales.