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Hannah Montana Mania
July 8, 2010 Updated Jul 8, 2010 at 3:25 PM EDT


LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - Arkansas Attorney General Dustin
McDaniel demanded documents Wednesday from five ticket-sales Web
sites in an investigation into whether a quick sellout of a
"Hannah Montana" concert violated scalping laws.
Venues for the 54-date tour by 14-year-old Miley Cyrus, the star
of the Disney Channel show, sold out in as little as four minutes
and scalpers are getting four to five times the face value,
creating a torrent of complaints from frustrated parents. A single
ticket for the show in Charlotte, N.C., sold for $2,565.
McDaniel issued a consumer alert Sept. 21 cautioning parents to
research who was selling them the tickets before buying them. The
Kansas City, Mo., City Council also has said it would look into the
sales.
Gabe Holmstrom, a spokesman for McDaniel's office, said the
attorney general's office is focusing on whether ticket brokers
used computer software to manipulate ticket purchases and
essentially cut in line on the Ticketmaster Web site to buy large
quantities of tickets.
McDaniel is also investigating whether fictitious tickets are
being listed on those sites just to determine whether consumers
would buy tickets at higher prices.
McDaniel gave the companies 20 days to respond.
A spokeswoman for ticketliquidator.com, one of the Web sites
targeted, said the company had no comment. McDaniel also demanded
the documents from StubHub.com, a ticket-reselling subsidiary of
eBay Inc.
Sean Pate, a spokesman for San Francisco-based StubHub, said the
company would cooperate with McDaniel.
"What's often mistaken about our marketplace is that we procure
and price tickets when, to the contrary, we simply provide a secure
and managed online marketplace for those who wish to sell tickets
they possess," Pate said.

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