Prestige Files Counterclaims Against Ticketmaster; Alleges Market Manipulation, Provision Of Bots

Ticket broker company Prestige Entertainment has answered the lawsuit against it and Renaissance Ventures LLC from Ticketmaster with a 46-page document categorically denying charges that it used bots to acquire tickets to shows including “Hamilton” and accusing Ticketmaster of acting in bad faith in matters related to the secondary market.

The document, filed June 25 in U.S District Court in Central California (made available by the Hollywood Reporter), responds paragraph-by-paragraph to Ticketmaster’s Second Amended Complaint and denies TM’s claims that Prestige and Renaissance used bots to procure tens of thousands of tickets to events, evading CAPTCHA and “splunk” security features set up by TM. 

A large portion of the filing attacks Ticketmaster’s practices related to the secondary market. It repeatedly asserts that Ticketmaster does not make bona fide efforts to keep tickets off the secondary market or to set up effective security measures. 

Prestige claims Ticketmaster actually tries to get tickets onto its own ticket resale exchange so that it gets service fees from the primary sale and commission fees from the resale, a practice referred to in the filing as “double-dipping.”  

Rosalie Fox via AP – ‘Hamilton’ Fans
The operators of the Hollywood Pantages reroute the line for the box office through the air-conditioned theater

Because it is more profitable for Ticketmaster to move tickets on its own resale platform, Prestige alleges that TM often makes tickets available to known resellers, and, in some cases, provides resellers with bots “to automate their purchase and resale activities.” 

“TM provides no transparency to consumers about how and why tickets wind up on one or another exchange, and indeed TM and its suppliers deceptively slip tickets between primary and secondary markets to manipulate consumer pricing and squelch competition,” the filing reads. 

A source with knowledge of the secondary ticketing industry told Pollstar that Prestige was a huge source of concert ticket inventory for StubHub for years. Prestige does not discuss its relationship with StubHub in the counterclaim, but contends that in some venues TM limits resale to only its own resale exchanges, stifling activity on competing sites like StubHub.

The anonymous source said that, while primary prices are now generally correcting closer to their actual market value, companies like Prestige reaped enormous profits for years. 

The filing references the investigation by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman that said 54 percent of tickets to shows were not made available to the public. That same investigation also found that Prestige used bots to procure huge amounts of tickets, and led to Prestige agreeing to pay out a $3.35 million settlement. 

In the filing, Prestige also claims TM sabotages the efforts of its own Verified Fan program by releasing tickets for sale at the box office simultaneously to the Verified offering. 

The document closes with counterclaims alleging violations of the N.Y. Arts and Cultural Affairs Law Section 25.24(2)(b), California Business and Professions Code Section 17200, the Cartwright Claim, California Bus. And Prof. Code, Section 16720, and two violations of the Sherman act. Prestige says TM is unreasonably restraining trade in the secondary ticket exchange market and its conduct amounts to an “intentional and unlawful maintenance of monopoly power, and associated conspiracy and attempts to acquire and maintain monopoly power,” in the primary and secondary markets.

The sixth counterclaim is for a declaratory judgment of copyright misuse, alleging TM is trying to monopolize the market. 

The counterclaims seek injunctions against TM preventing “its attempts to restrain trade, foreclose competition and selectively restrict access to primary ticket inventory by resllers,” along with damages and legal fees.

Ticketmaster sent the following statement to Pollstar in response to the counterclaims: “The claims made in this filing are patently false. Ticketmaster in no way, shape or form supplies automated programs known as bots to give ticket resellers an advantage over real fans. Ticketmaster has taken a strong stance against bots, has zero tolerance for their use, and cancels tickets that are purchased using them. Prestige Entertainment is one of the country’s most notorious bot users, and these claims are a desperate attempt to shift the focus away from their illegal business model, which the court previously stated ‘is built on a scheme to evade Ticketmaster’s policies for profit.’”

Ticketmaster’s suit seeks to prevent further copyright infringement, bot usage and circumvention of its security measures, along with legal costs, damages, and some of the defendants’ profits. A District Court rejected Prestige’s motion to dismiss the suit earlier this month.

“Ticketmaster is suing Prestige Entertainment over their use of bots to instantly and illegally purchase tens of thousands of tickets and leave real fans out in the cold,” Ticketmaster’s Brett Morrow previously told Pollstar in a statement. “Ticketmaster has zero tolerance for bots and will continue to employ all available methods to stop their usage.”