The Federal Trade Commission accused Ticketmaster and Live Nation of generating a profit by allowing ticket brokers to buy hordes of tickets and resell them for high prices.
The Federal Trade Commission and seven states filed a lawsuit against Ticketmaster and Live Nation on Thursday, accusing the ticket sellers of deceiving artists and consumers by allowing consumers to buy large numbers of tickets and resell them for much higher prices.
The FTC accused Ticketmaster and Live Nation of allowing consumers to purchase large numbers of tickets and resell them for high prices. Live Nation and Ticketmaster of violating the FTC Act, which prohibits deceptive practices in the marketplace, and of violating the Better Online Ticket Sales Act, a 2016 law passed to halt the use of automated bots to purchase tickets and resell them at higher prices. The FTC said Ticketmaster and Live Nation have declined to stop mass purchases and resales because they “triple dip” to generate profit: first by collecting fees from the ticket brokers who purchase the tickets, then by collecting fees from both the brokers when they resell tickets and consumers when they buy the resale tickets. The lawsuit accuses the ticket companies of ignoring resellers who violate the companies’ limits on how many tickets a consumer can purchase, citing an email from a Ticketmaster executive who said the companies “turn a blind eye as a matter of policy” toward the limit violations. Ticketmaster and Live Nation also deceived consumers by hiding added fees and presenting ticket prices as much lower than the prices customers were charged at checkout, the suit says. The suit also accused the companies of failing to take additional action to stop ticket brokers, claiming the companies declined to use third-party verification for ticket purchases in 2021 because it was “too effective” at stopping the ticket brokers. The Attorneys General of Virginia, Utah, Florida, Tennessee, Nebraska, Illinois and Colorado joined the FTC as plaintiffs in the suit, which was filed in California federal court.$16.4 billion. That’s how much the FTC says Ticketmaster and Live Nation charged in fees on primary sale and resale tickets between 2019 and 2024, with $3.7 billion coming from fees on resale tickets alone.
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