US: NY’s top prosecutor targets NFL in antitrust probe

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is conducting an antitrust investigation of the NFL and its practice of imposing “price-floors” on certain tickets as part of an ongoing probe into the online ticketing market, a source said on Thursday.

The antitrust investigation grew out of a probe by the attorney general’s office into irregularities in the ticketing industry, which found that ticket brokers were using illegal software programs to snap up thousands of tickets and reselling them with huge price markups.

The source familiar with the NFL antitrust probe, who asked not to be identified because of the non-public nature of the matter, said it was spurred by a flood of complaints about use of the illegal software known as ticket bots.

A report released on Wednesday by Schneiderman’s office detailed how the National Football League, and sports teams like the New York Yankees, implement rules barring sales of tickets below a certain price level on official sites.

“Price floors may make it impossible to obtain tickets on the team-promoted Ticket Exchange platform for below face value when demand decreases,” like during games at the end of a sports season between teams not headed to the playoffs, the report said.

Full content: Nano News

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