U.S. probes Ticketmaster on resellers

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NEW YORK, April 4 (UPI) -- Ticketmaster Entertainment Inc. says U.S. and state officials are investigating its business relationships with concert ticket resellers.

The company, in an e-mail sent Friday to ticket resellers who use its TicketsNow Web site, Ticketmaster said the U.S. Justice Department, the Federal Trade Commission, the New Jersey Attorney General, the Canadian Competition Bureau and others were seeking information about its relationships with resellers, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The e-mail said the officials had demanded to see names and business contracts of every broker who uses TicketsNow, where tickets to sold-out shows are re-sold at many times their face value, the Journal said.

The newspaper reported it was unclear if the probe was connected to Ticketmaster's proposed merger with concert promoter Live Nation Inc., which is under review by the Justice Department.

The move comes after a February incident in which customers reportedly said they were redirected from Ticketmaster's Web site to TicketsNow when trying to buy ducats to two Bruce Springsteen concerts in New Jersey.