Montreal class-action aims to tackle ticket fees

MONTREAL — Extra delivery fees on the price of tickets for concerts and shows are described as exploitative in a recent application for a class-action suit against entertainment giant evenko.

A law firm representing a Montreal concertgoer is behind the May 3 application and is asking for punitive damages amounting to $15 per member of the action per purchase.

It alleges l’Arena des canadiens Inc., which owns and operates the evenko website, charges between $5 and $7 for services described as either an electronic ticket fee, a box office pickup fee or a mobile ticket fee.

“These fees are nothing more than a cash cow for the defendant,” the application contends. “The defendant behaves as if it has carte blanche to exploit consumers and adherents and to charge them abusive and disproportionate delivery fees.”

A judge has yet to sign off on the action, but Consumer Law Group, a Montreal-based firm, claims in the filing that evenko is running afoul of Quebec’s consumer protection act.

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“It is claimed in the lawsuit that there is an extreme disproportion between what evenko charges consumers and what it actually costs evenko to email consumers their electronic tickets, allow a customer to physically pick up their printed tickets, transfer electronic tickets to a mobile device, or allow clients to use their credit cards as entry to an event,” the filing reads.

“The fair market value for the service for which the defendant charges these fees is zero or very close to zero.”

In 2016 alone, evenko promoted 1,224 events and generated tens of millions of dollars in ticket sales, the suit suggests.

In a statement, evenko said there’s nothing abusive about the practice.

“We would like to affirm, first of all, that the addition of fees for the ticketing service is a common practice in the entertainment industry, as much in Quebec as in the rest of Canada and North America,” company spokesman Philip Vanden Brande wrote. 

“Moreover, we make sure to comply with applicable laws at all times.”

The company wouldn’t comment further, given the matter is now with its lawyers, he added.

The application states none of evenko’s competitors charge similar fees, unless it is for the mailing or the physical delivery of tickets.

The suit doesn’t target charges for tickets that are sent by mail or courier, acknowledging there’s a cost associated with that service.

Sidhartha Banerjee, The Canadian Press