TicketsNow to pay $50,000 fine for misleading customers

A settlement agreement was reached by a subsidiary of Ticketmaster Entertainment Inc. with the Illinois Attorney General as the prosecutors accused the ticket selling unit of distributing tickets to Hannah Montana and Bruce Springsteen concerts at unfairly high prices.

On Tuesday the state attorney general's office announced that it had revealed TicketsNow operated Web sites with domain names that misled customers to believe it was affiliated with the concerts' event operators. While customers thought they paid face-value prices actually they were paying more as the tickets were offered at resale prices.

As a part of the settlement TicketsNow closes such sites and agrees not to use ones that practice similar tactics. Also, the resale tickets won't be available until Ticketmaster begins selling face-value tickets. Besides, TicketsNow will pay $50,000 the state general's office for consumer fraud enforcement and education.