South Windsor’s TicketNetwork Inc. and owner Don Vaccaro have agreed to repay $1.55 million to thousands of duped concert- and live-event ticketbuyers and agreed to reform their business practices, New York’s top civil lawyer says.
New York Attorney General Letitia James announced Wednesday afternoon the settlement resolving a lawsuit against TicketNetwork, affiliate Ticket Galaxy, and their owner Donald Vaccaro, for luring unsuspecting customers into purchasing tickets to concerts, shows, and other live events that the sellers did not actually own.
James’ predecessor, Barbara Underwood, sued TicketNetwork and Vaccaro, both of whom claimed at the time they were not liable for the actions of other ticket sellers who use its network.
The settlement is subject to court approval.
In a statement Thursday, Vaccaro said he was glad to have the lawsuit behind.
“Our company has now achieved the clarity and certainty that we initially sought” when TicketNetwork sued New York state.
“Because of their dishonest practices, these companies defrauded thousands of New Yorkers and duped customers into spending millions of dollars on speculative tickets,” James said in a statement. “We are holding these companies accountable for their deceptive practices that swindled New Yorkers out of their hard-earned money and are putting in place reforms to protect ticket buyers in the future.”
In 2012, Vaccaro resumed his TicketNetwork executive duties after an interim leave in response to an alleged intimidation incident at an Academy Awards party in Hartford. He insisted at the time he had done nothing wrong.
However, the incident prompted TicketNetwork to withdraw its state petition for $8 million in economic-development aid under then-Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s “First Five’’ job-creation/retention program.
This story has been updated to include comment from Don Vaccaro.
