AGs: Parents Have Inalienable Rights To Hannah Montana Tickets

Peter Kafka | October 8, 2007 10:00 PM

Last week we suggested that expensive Hannah Montana tickets were a result of market forces, not criminal behavior.* We appear to be in the minority on this one. From Billboard.com:

Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon last week sued three ticket resellers on charges they violated state consumer protection laws. Also last week, Arkansas AG Dustin McDaniel said he was investigating resellers in that state, as is Pennsylvania AG Tom Corbett. The attention from state legal eagles speaks to the huge demand for tickets to the 54-date Hannah Montana tour, which begins Oct. 18 in St. Louis.

Adding fuel to the fire are the core demographics being impacted -- children and their parents. "You're dealing with a mother/child dynamic here that can lead to a very upset child and a very angry mother, and that certainly exacerbates things," says Ticketmaster VP/assistant general counsel Joe Freeman.

We didn't know that certain "core demographics" had the right to demand lower prices on entertainments. We also don't know if we fall into any of the "core demographics" that qualify for government intervention on our behalf. But if we do, here's a brief list of things we'd like to pay less for. Andrew Cuomo, please take note:

• Starbucks grande skim latte
• Santa Fe salad from Chopt
• Time Warner Cable's Cable/Broadband/Phone "triple play"
• Two-bedroom apartments in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn.

Related: Why Hannah Montana Should Sell $200 Tickets

* We also wondered if Connecticut AG was aware of the situation. Of course he is! From MTV.com:

The situation was no better in Connecticut, where there were also plenty of upset fans. That state's attorney general, Richard Blumenthal, blames the fact that the state did away with its scalping laws. "Consumers are now at the mercy of ticket scalpers who can corner the market on tickets and then exercise monopolistic stranglehold power on the prices that tickets are sold," Blumenthal told local station WTNH.