LITTLE ROCK — Ticketmaster is asking the Arkansas Supreme Court to reconsider its ruling that the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act applies to the company’s fees.
The high court issued the 4-3 decision last month in response to a question posed by a federal judge in a lawsuit brought against Ticketmaster and its parent company, Live Nation Entertainment, by Corey McMillan of Arkadelphia.
The court agreed with McMillan that Ticketmaster is not exempt from a provision in the Deceptive Trade Practices Act prohibiting the sale of concert tickets for more than the box office sale price or the price printed on the tickets.
Ticketmaster has asked the court to reconsider that ruling, saying in a petition for rehearing that the ruling contains “errors of fact and law … that if uncorrected will have severe and unintended consequences for Ticketmaster, venues and consumers in Arkansas.”
The company argues in the petition that the Legislature’s intent in passing the law was to prohibit ticket scalping. It also argues that the ruling could result in venues ceasing to do business with ticket sellers like Ticketmaster, resulting in a loss of convenience to customers, or in ticket prices going up for everyone, so that customers who formerly chose to save money by buying tickets at the physical box office would lose that option.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
The latter scenario has come to pass at Verizon Arena in North Little Rock, which announced four days after the ruling that it was raising the price of tickets for a Lady Antebellum concert and that tickets bought online would be the same price as tickets bought at the box office.
Todd Turner, McMillan’s attorney, has said that charging everyone the same price for concert tickets is fairer than publicizing one price but charging a higher price for online purchases.
Turner has filed a response to Ticketmaster’s petition in which he argues that the petition merely repeats arguments the court has already considered and should be dismissed.