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from the no-wonder-I-couldn't-get-tickets dept.
Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984
When Adele fans went online to buy tickets to the pop superstar's world tour last year, they had no idea what exactly they were up against.
An army of tech-savvy resellers that included a little-known Canadian superscalper named Julien Lavallée managed to vacuum up thousands of tickets in a matter of minutes in one of the quickest tour sellouts in history.
The many fans who were shut out would have to pay scalpers like Lavallée a steep premium if they still wanted to see their favourite singer.
An investigation by CBC/Radio-Canada and the Toronto Star, based in part on documents found in the Paradise Papers, rips the lid off Lavallée's multimillion-dollar operation based out of Quebec and reveals how ticket website StubHub not only enables but rewards industrial-scale scalpers who gouge fans around the world.
CBC News obtained sales records from three U.K. shows that provide unprecedented insight into the speed and scale of Lavallée's ticket scam.
Despite a four-ticket-per-customer limit, his business snatched up 310 seats in 25 minutes, charged to 15 different names in 12 different locations.
The grand total? Nearly $52,000 worth of tickets at face value.
Source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/paradise-papers-stubhub-1.4395361
(Score: 2) by Geezer on Tuesday November 14 2017, @11:04AM (9 children)
Scalpers are just another iteration of the monopolistic rent-seeking and extreme profiteering that dominates modern capitalism, not very different from Microsoft, Walmart, or Comcast.
Profiteers would not exist if there were no market, but there is. There is no shortage of enablers.
As the fictional Dr. Gregory House so pithily put it, "People are idiots."
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Wootery on Tuesday November 14 2017, @11:13AM (4 children)
Well, no. For all their many sins, Microsoft do actually make something.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday November 14 2017, @12:31PM (3 children)
But, like scalpers, what they make is useless!
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by Wootery on Tuesday November 14 2017, @01:16PM (2 children)
I like SN snark as much as anyone, but, no.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 14 2017, @03:19PM (1 child)
Proprietary software is inherently useless. People who defend proprietary software are inherently without value.
(Score: 2) by Wootery on Tuesday November 14 2017, @05:04PM
Reality strongly disagrees.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Gaaark on Tuesday November 14 2017, @12:32PM
Or like the non-fictional Gaaark, "Peoples is dumb!"
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday November 14 2017, @04:05PM
You can also get that in the monopolistic rent-seeking and extreme profiteering of socialist and welfare state projects. Black markets are a thing.
(Score: 1) by mmarujo on Wednesday November 15 2017, @06:08PM (1 child)
Allow me to disagree.
Yes there is a market, but that only means there is someone willing to pay for it.
The same thing happens with, for instance, hit-man: there is someone willing to pay for it.
In either case I blame those who buy AND those who sell the "service".
(Score: 2) by Geezer on Wednesday November 15 2017, @06:59PM
You have a point, but all business transactions are binary: a buyer and a seller. It takes two to tango.