The FTC and seven states have filed a major lawsuit against Live Nation, the parent company of Ticketmaster. The legal action accuses the company of knowingly enabling ticket brokers to purchase tickets in large quantities, bypassing security measures. The complaint further alleges that Ticketmaster then allowed these same brokers to resell the tickets at inflated prices on its own secondary market platform. According to the FTC, Ticketmaster was fully aware that resellers were routinely circumventing its purchase limits. This practice allows the company to profit multiple times from a single ticket. It collects an initial fee at the first sale, and then collects both a buyer fee and a seller fee when that ticket is resold on its platform. The agency states that between 2019 and 2024, Ticketmaster earned a staggering 16.4 billion dollars in fees. The lawsuit depicts a company driven by corporate greed. The FTC cites an internal Live Nation review that found just five resellers alone had acquired over 246,000 tickets for nearly 2,600 events. An internal email is quoted where Ticketmaster allegedly admitted it turns a blind eye to this activity as a matter of policy. The complaint goes further, claiming the company actively supports these brokers through its TradeDesk application. This software is specifically designed to help resellers consolidate and manage tickets purchased through multiple different Ticketmaster accounts, facilitating their large-scale operations. Ticketmaster is also accused of deliberately choosing not to implement third-party identity verification tools that could have prevented bulk purchases. The FTC quotes the company as reasoning that these tools would have been too effective at stopping the activity. The lawsuit also points to deceptive pricing practices, alleging the company hid the true cost of tickets because it knew customers were less likely to buy when they saw the full price upfront. The FTC has accused Live Nation of violating two key laws. The first is the FTC Act, which prohibits deceptive and unfair business practices. The second is the BOTS Act, a law signed by President Obama in 2016 that explicitly bans the use of automated software to buy tickets in excess of posted limits. Enforcement of this act was recently reinforced by an executive order from President Trump earlier this year. The lawsuit was filed in the US District Court for the Central District of California. The states of Virginia, Utah, Florida, Tennessee, Nebraska, Illinois, and Colorado have joined the FTC in this legal action against the live entertainment giant.
