Sneaky ticket resale companies are on the hook for $1.55 million after duping customers into buying tickets the firms didn’t even have, according to a settlement announced Wednesday.

State Attorney General Letitia James’ office sued companies TicketNetwork and Ticket Galaxy along with their owner Donald Vaccaro for selling “speculative” concert and show tickets, despite not actually possessing them.

The two companies charged inflated prices, and purchased tickets from other sites only after a customer made a payment, the AG’s office claimed.

Ticket Galaxy blamed “technical” or “listing errors” for disrupted orders or when customers claimed to never have received tickets.

“Because of their dishonest practices, these companies defrauded thousands of New Yorkers and duped customers into spending millions of dollars on speculative tickets,” said James. “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.”

Besides the $1.55 million penalty, the settlement requires the companies to adopt stricter disclosures on their websites regarding company practices.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a bill during the 2018 legislative session that cracked down on these practices by ramping up protections for ticket purchasers and banning inflated pricing and misrepresentation on company sites.

But the law took effect in Dec. 2018, after the attorney general’s lawsuit was filed.

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