Ticketmaster´s `TradeDesk´ scalper tool explained
(The Star Canada)

Days after two senior U.S. senators asked the world’s biggest entertainment monopoly to answer pointed questions about its role in the mass scalping of tickets — in response to a Toronto Star/CBC investigation — Ticketmaster’s president has provided the first public mea culpa to the “explosive� revelations.“The allegations of the harms to consumers made in this piece are serious and deserve immediate attention,� wrote senators Jerry Moran and Richard Blumenthal in a letter to the CEO of Ticketmaster’s parent company, Live Nation, on Friday. “Given our ongoing interest in protecting consumers from unfair and deceptive practices, we seek clarification on the use of this program.�In an interview with Billboard magazine published Monday, Ticketmaster boss Jared Smith conceded his company isn’t effectively policing its TradeDesk platform, where scalpers with multiple Ticketmaster accounts can upload and resell industrial-scale inventories of seats to major sports and concert events — in breach of the company’s own rules. “There’s clearly some things that we’re not doing well enough,� said Smith.Ticketmaster has never granted the Star and CBC an on-the-record interview despite multiple requests. But company executives have embarked on a public relations offensive to quell widespread consumer anger as the story spreads into the U.S. media.“We’ll learn from it and we’ll make some changes,� Smith said.Read more: We went undercover as ticket scalpers — and Ticketmaster offered to help us do businessTicketmaster responds to Star/CBC investigation, vows to root out mass scalpersTicketmaster facing class action lawsuits over ticket resalesIn response to the congressmen’s questions, the Star has gathered company records and public comments — along with the investigation’s hidden camera findings — to detail what we kn ...