Ticketmaster Ireland stoutly deny accusation of profiteering from Asia disaster

national | miscellaneous | other press Friday January 14, 2005 18:29 by Keith Harris - Newsmedianews.com news at newsmedianews dot com Limerick 061 316657

Organisers call on the major conglomerates to waive their charges

Fine Gael Foreign Affairs Spokesman Bernard Allen TD on has called on Ticketmaster to consider waiving its service charge when booking tickets for Tsunami Aid events, or else to contribute the profits from the charges on these particular events to the appeal fund.

But event organisers say the profits are being made by the banking, credit card and telephone companies who have declined to waive their own charges for Asia-relief charity event bookings.

Fine Gael Foreign Affairs Spokesman Bernard Allen TD on has called on Ticketmaster to consider waiving its service charge when booking tickets for Tsunami Aid events, or else to contribute the profits from the charges on these particular events to the appeal fund.

But event organisers say the profits are being made by the banking, credit card and telephone companies who have declined to waive their own charges for Asia-relief charity event bookings.

Mr Allen said: “In light of the enormous public goodwill surrounding support for the Tsunami Aid appeal funds, it would be appropriate for Ticketmaster to make a contribution in kind. The company should certainly not be profiting from these events, which would not be taking place were it not for the disaster in Asia.

“Ticketmaster must also explain why charges for these events vary from just under 12% of the ticket price to 17.5%. At the very least, the service charged on these charitable events should be the lowest percentage rate in all cases. Because the minimum charge is not being applied across the board, the company’s mark-up on tickets with the highest charge is a staggering 200%.

“I would also criticise the practice of levying service charges for each individual ticket when two or more tickets are being purchased. Surely, in this very special case, Ticketmaster should consider charging a service fee for each total transaction, rather than for each individual ticket.

“In the light of the artists, venues, credit card companies and other organisations who are freely giving their time and services, it seems churlish for Ticketmaster not to make a similar contribution.”

But a spokesman for Ticketmaster Ireland told Newsmedianews: “Ticketmaster would like it to be known that after service charges have been applied, all money goes to Asia. Where on earth does he get the mark-up figure of 200% from? Our charges range from 7.5% to 12%. In the charity events we are still required to pay credit card charges, post office or bank charges etc, but all money raised from these events goes to Aisa.”

Brian Merriman, organiser of Eurovision for Aisa, which takes place in Dublin’s Olympia Theatre on 23 January, said he had been well aware of the difficulties in ticket service charges from the onset.

He said: “I reached a very agreeable arrengement with Ticketmaster, who are donating all proceeds from the ticket sales to the appeal. However, Ticketmaster must still pay service charges to the credit card companies, the telephone companies and the post offices, who are not waiving their charges. Individual charges are applied to single and multiple ticket purchases.

“Mr Allen would be better directing his calls to the big conglomerates, who are continuing to profit from charity events that are being staged to benefit those in the Asia disaster areas.”