The ticket sales industry is well known for dealing with a number of chargebacks. Chargebacks occur when a customer files a claim with their financial institution in order to receive the money back from a purchase. With ticket sales, there can be a number of reasons why a customer files a chargeback, such as buyers remorse after a spontaneous ticket purchase, becoming sick and unable to attend the event they purchased the tickets for, or perhaps being dissatisfied with further developments of the concert, sporting event, etc. Whatever the cause may be, chargebacks run rampant in this industry, which makes third party ticket vendors high-risk for many payment processing institutions.

While many ticket vendors sell legitimate tickets for events, there have been many instances where fraudulent tickets are sold. These tickets are deemed to be fraudulent on the day of the event or a little beforehand, which prompts chargebacks and disputes from unsatisfied customers. Because of the probability of fraudulent tickets being sold through third-party vendors, many payment processing institutions are very wary of working with these businesses. Fraudulent tickets aren’t always the case for vendors, but it can be a big obstacle for hard-working businesses who want access to efficient payment processing services.

The average price of a concert ticket can vary, but within the last few years it is common to see concert tickets fall anywhere between $120 to $150. Considering the average person may go as a group to see their favorite artists, the overall transaction amount for a concert ticket sale can be quite large. This can be said also for sporting events, charity events, nightclub functions, and more. Because ticket merchants deal with large transaction amounts in an average sale, this can be an especially daunting detail that prevents them from getting the credit or debit card processing services they may need.In the case of a chargeback, quite a lot of money can be at risk for loss, which is detrimental for any ticket vendor and the bank or other financial institution that is working with them.

Most people will buy a ticket to a concert or other event with a large window of time before the actual event occurs. This can be for a number of reasons, including the opportunity to score tickets at a lower price or to ensure that tickets do not sell out before they can be purchased. Because third party ticket vendors typically go through these types of transactions, the risk of something happening during that large window of time, such as a chargeback, is a key factor that makes them a high-risk merchant. Much like with the travel industry, the large time windows in between transactions make the ticket sales industry very high-risk for payment processing platforms.