{"id":3164,"date":"2013-05-23T05:06:30","date_gmt":"2013-05-23T05:06:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/skylight.gr\/administrator_wordpress\/index.php\/2013\/05\/23\/ticketmaster-fined-23-million-for-creating-a-bogus-rewards-program\/"},"modified":"2013-05-23T05:06:30","modified_gmt":"2013-05-23T05:06:30","slug":"ticketmaster-fined-23-million-for-creating-a-bogus-rewards-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/2013\/05\/23\/ticketmaster-fined-23-million-for-creating-a-bogus-rewards-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Ticketmaster Fined $23 Million for Creating a Bogus ‘Rewards Program…’"},"content":{"rendered":"


Ticketmaster is one of the most hated brands in the America, and frankly, they don’t give a f*&k.\u00a0 But is there a hangover to all this bad behavior?\u00a0 Suddenly, music fans are showing less appetite for over-priced, fee-heavy shows, and there’s little brand loyalty to protect Ticketmaster from disruptive changes ahead.\u00a0 Which brings us to this: according to a federal court decision now unsealed, Ticketmaster faces a $23 million fine for hoodwinking customers into an expensive ‘rewards program,’ one that featured few perks and lots of hidden costs.\u00a0 Affected customers are being notified, and can claim reimbursements of $30 each.<\/p>\n

The scam, which ran from 2004 to 2009, basically offered ticketbuyers inclusion in the rewards program, while obscuring the presence of a tacked-on, monthly fee.\u00a0 That fee often sat on customer cards for several months, with a tiny percentage (about 7%) making any redemptions.\u00a0 Ticketmaster claimed that the fee was marked, and customers knew what they were getting into. <\/p>\n

Not so, according to the class action plaintiffs.\u00a0 Most affected customers took months to realize the charges and cancel the accounts, with Ticketmaster making tens of millions by the time it was all over.\u00a0 According to the plaintiffs, the scheme ultimately minted $85 million for Ticketmaster, or $75.89 per customer (guess Ticketmaster executives aren’t overpaid, after all).\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Furthermore, it took the average affected customer 8 months to remove the charge completely from their bills.\u00a0 The settlement, which also includes $4 million in legal costs, was approved by US District Judge Dale Fischer in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

Source: Digital Music Niews<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ticketmaster is one of the most hated brands in the America, and frankly, they don’t…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3164\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}