Government Inquiry Into Hannah Montana Begins

jharv | September 27, 2007 9:30 am
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What’s the next step when you can’t get your kids tickets to the upcoming Hannah Montana show thanks to venal scalpers and unconscionable brokers using the evil of the Internet to make the shows instant sell-outs, only to resell them at prices steep enough to put nice middle-class folks into the poor house: 1.) Say “no” and take them to an inexpensive evening at Chuck E. Cheese instead? 2.) Make them read a damn book? 3.) Sell them into child slavery? 4.) Call the Attorney General!

Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon has received about 30 complaints from irate parents about the Hannah concert. Spokesman Scott Holste said the office is investigating whether anyone broke the state’s consumer protection laws.

“The attorney general can look all he wants, God bless him,” Petrullo said. “It’s all legal. It’s big business.”

Now that the Montana ticket fiasco has pissed off enough breeders to warrant getting the authorities involved, “a federal judge in Los Angeles is scheduled to hear Ticketmaster’s effort to stop an Ohio software company from providing a program that allegedly lets brokers buy tickets before the public, corner the market and drive up prices,” according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. I’ll admit my ongoing Montana snark stems from this whole universe, not only kiddies clamoring for the current hot ticket but also stadium and arena shows in general, seeming a little a little distant from my day to day reality, but I do agree that brokers hoovering up tickets to “tak[e] advantage of how much people love their children” (as one mother put it) is pretty gross on a “robbing the incompetent” level. On the other hand, this is why I stick to Netflix and childless celibacy.

Inflated Concert Ticket Prices? [STLtoday.com]