Ticketmaster to pay back duped Springsteen fans

Refunds will be issued by Ticketmaster to consumers who purchased tickets to 14 Bruce Springsteen concerts last year and were either overcharged or didn't receive any tickets at all, the Federal Trade Commission said Thursday.

Ticketmaster drove prospective purchasers from its main ticket-selling site to its reseller TicketsNow.com, charging a premium for its own tickets. And not every ticket sold even existed, FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said in a conference call with reporters. A settlement of the complaint lodged by the FTC was filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago.

The FTC said that from October 2008 to February 2009 Ticketmaster showed consumers a message -- for Springsteen concerts as well as other events -- that no tickets were available and then direct them to TicketsNow, where prices could be four times the face value.