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STATEMENT FROM THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF NEW JERSEY’S OFFICE
Division of Consumer Affairs

NEWARK - The Office of the Attorney General and the Division of Consumer Affairs are investigating Monday’s sale of Bruce Springsteen concerts tickets after consumers complained about problems they encountered during attempted online purchases.

“Consumers are questioning what transpired and if they had an equal opportunity to purchase these concert tickets. We share these concerns and are investigating this matter,” Attorney General Anne Milgram said.

More than 250 consumer complaints have been received as of midday today. The Division of Consumer Affairs has placed an icon labeled “Bruce Springsteen/Ticketmaster Complaints” on its main web page for consumers to link to an online complaint form. The Division’s web page is located at http://www.njConsumerAffairs.gov

Consumer Affairs investigators will review submitted complaints to determine how the online sales process was conducted and whether any violations of the state’s Consumer Fraud Act or ticket resale law occurred.

Though happy to have won a Grammy, Bruce Springsteen is not happy with the merger of Ticketmaster and Live Nation. He wrote on his website:

Last Monday, we were informed that Ticketmaster was redirecting your log-in requests for tickets at face value, to their secondary site TicketsNow, which specializes in up-selling tickets at above face value. They did this even when other seats remained available at face value. We condemn this practice.

We perceive this as a pure conflict of interest. Ticketmaster is there to ensure that we have a good, fair sale of our tickets at their face value plus normal ticketing charges. TicketsNow is supposed to be a secondary site where people who already have tickets may exchange, trade, and, unfortunately, speculate with them. We have asked this redirection from Ticketmaster to TicketsNow cease and desist immediately and Ticketmaster has agreed to do so in the future and has removed its unwanted material from their and our site.

A final point for now: the one thing that would make the current ticket situation even worse for the fan than it is now would be Ticketmaster and Live Nation coming up with a single system, thereby returning us to a near monopoly situation in music ticketing. Several newspapers are reporting on this story right now. If you, like us, oppose that idea, you should make it known to your representatives.

The abuse of our fans and our trust by Ticketmaster has made us as furious as it has made many of you. We will continue to do our utmost now and in the future to make sure that these practices are permanently curtailed on our tours.

Bruce Springsteen, Jon Landau and the entire Springsteen Tour Team