About 15 years ago, wheelchair seating was exclusively purchased using the Ticketmaster Wheelchair Accessible Seating phone line. When you have to verbally declare that you use a wheeled device, it results in 100% compliance, meaning all of the seats were used appropriately. One person using a wheeled device and their companion.

The ability to purchase these legally required seats has moved online for “ease of access”. And, it is extremely obvious that there was no oversight of the abuse that was foreseeable.

It is surprising how quickly the anonymity of this process has degraded compliance. After the switch to the online format, compliance has dropped to about 30 to 40%.

Soon after this change to online ticket purchasing, we asked Ticketmaster why the change was necessary considering the Ticketmaster Wheelchair Accessible Seating phone line was a low volume, low cost, highly useful, fair and just way of ensuring appropriate usage.

Ticketmaster's response was that the stakeholders demanded the change. Well, as a wheelchair user that has been to a lot of concerts, I can say, I was never consulted on this change, nor have any other disabled patrons I spoke to.

The stakeholders/corporate entities that are benefiting from the switch to online ticket sales are, Live Nation, American Express (who now control the best wheelchair seats at a lot of shows) and the resale sites.

The true stakeholders/wheelchair users were left out of the change and are now being subjected to an erosion of their human rights.

As a monopoly on the distribution of tickets for the majority of events at all large and medium venues Canada wide, Ticketmaster is ultimately responsible to ensure its own policies are being followed by both, itself and the participating venues.

Currently, Ticketmaster and the venues are not on the same page, do not work together to resolve any issues and continuously point fingers at each other to deflect responsibility.

Corporations don’t seem to do the right thing until they are pressured by Class Action Lawsuits. A Class Action Lawsuit should be filed against Ticketmaster for their negligence in ensuring that its own policies are followed. Policies are hollow when not enforced and advocacy is obviously not.

The Consumer Council of Canada is currently investigating Ticketmaster for other issues. We will be sure to bring the wheelchair seating issue to the attention as well. The more people involved the better, so please contact the CCC to voice your opinions and experiences with wheelchair accessible seating.

Website: consumerscouncil.com/about-us/contact-us/
Phone: 416-483-2696