B.C. lawyer in $500M Ticketmaster suit calls U.S. deal 'encouraging'
But no compensation for Canadian plaintiffs yet, she says
Last Updated: Tuesday, February 24, 2009 | 3:16 PM ET
CBC News
A lawyer representing Canadians in a class action suit filed in Ontario against Ticketmaster welcomed the company's decision to reimburse U.S. customers who were charged inflated prices for concert tickets.
Luciana Brasil of Branch McMaster in Vancouver also told CBC News that more civil suits in Manitoba and Alberta are likely to be filed soon against the ticketing and artist management company but did not specify when.
Brasil's comments come a day after Ticketmaster and the state of New Jersey reached a settlement following an investigation over whether the company broke state laws by charging allegedly inflated prices for a Feb. 2 Bruce Springsteen concert.
Fans complained that initial attempts to buy tickets to the New Jersey concert simply redirected them to a Ticketmaster subsidiary, TicketsNow, which offered the tickets at an inflated price.
Monday's settlement requires the firm to halt a previous advertising arrangement that had customers Googling Ticketmaster being automatically directed to the TicketsNow website. It will also pay the state $350,000 US for costs related to the investigation and reimburse the 2,000-odd customers who complained about being overcharged.
"It's really encouraging to hear that Ticketmaster is removing the web links to TicketsNow and is prepared to refund the higher prices paid to customers in the U.S.," Brasil told CBC Monday. "But to my understanding, there is no compensation being made available to Canadians."
Lawyers from Sutts, Strosberg in Windsor, Ont., and Branch McMaster say they're representing a client who allegedly paid more than $500 for two tickets from TicketsNow that would have cost about $130 if they had been available from Ticketmaster.
The law firms claim Ticketmaster and the other defendants owe a total of $500 million in damages to their client and others who were overcharged in the past two years. They also allege the defendants violated Ontario law. Ticketmaster has said in response to prior complaints that the company's ticket-selling system is fair and doesn't violate the law.
With files from the Canadian PressShare Tools
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