FTC Sues Live Nation And Ticketmaster Over “Illegal” Ticket Resale Practices

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has filed a lawsuit against Ticketmaster and its parent company, Live Nation Entertainment, accusing the companies of using illegal tactics to profit from ticket resales. This legal action, initiated on a Thursday in federal court in California, has the support of seven states, including Florida, Illinois, and Virginia. The lawsuit contends that the two companies worked with ticket resellers, known as “scalpers,” to allow them to unlawfully buy tickets, thereby increasing their own profits.

The complaint states that this illegal behavior prevents artists from keeping ticket prices affordable for everyday American families, costing fans millions of dollars annually. The FTC also alleges that Ticketmaster uses a “bait and switch” approach, where it changes its advertised ticket prices to effectively raise the total cost. Furthermore, the agency claims the company deliberately lets brokers get past ticket limits for resales and violates the Better Online Ticket Sales Act. The lawsuit states that Ticketmaster makes a profit in three different ways—from brokers in the main market, from brokers in the resale market, and from customers in the resale market. The FTC reports that the company made $3.7 billion from resold tickets between 2019 and 2024.

According to the FTC, the accused practices have negatively affected both customers and artists. FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson expressed his desire for a court order to stop Ticketmaster’s practices. “I want an injunction that tells Ticketmaster, ‘You can’t do this anymore. You can’t you can’t screw ordinary American consumers who just want to go to a baseball game or a concert, so that brokers can make massive profits and ticket master can share in those profits,’” he said on CNBC. Ferguson also noted that the FTC is “proud to carry out the president’s agenda today.”

The lawsuit comes after a similar legal challenge from the Justice Department last year, which sought to break up Live Nation and Ticketmaster due to alleged monopoly violations in the ticketing industry. That action followed public criticism in 2022 over the bungled ticket sales for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour.

According to the FTC, Ticketmaster handles about 80% of the ticketing for major concert venues. Between 2019 and 2024, customers spent more than $82 billion buying tickets through the platform.

[H/T] CNBC

*Cover image credit: Dado Ruvic