The lawsuit, filed within the U.S. District Courtroom for the Central District of California, accuses Ticketmaster and Reside Nation — the most important ticketing and stay leisure firm within the nation — of collaborating in three principal unlawful practices.
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The Federal Commerce Fee filed a lawsuit in opposition to Ticketmaster and its guardian firm, Reside Nation, on Thursday, alleging that the corporate willingly misleads shoppers about ticket costs and cooperates with scalpers to markup resale costs — all on the expense of artists and music followers. Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Nebraska, Tennessee, Utah and Virginia are all plaintiffs within the FTC’s complaints.
“American stay leisure is one of the best on this planet and ought to be accessible to all of us,” mentioned FTC Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson in a press release. “It mustn’t value an arm and a leg to take the household to a baseball sport or attend your favourite musician’s present.”
The lawsuit, filed within the U.S. District Courtroom for the Central District of California, accuses Ticketmaster and Reside Nation — the most important ticketing and stay leisure firm within the nation — of collaborating in three principal unlawful practices.
First, the FTC alleges that Ticketmaster engages in a “bait and swap method,” which means they submit ticket costs at deceptively low costs that then enhance by 30% or extra throughout checkout on account of extra charges. The criticism alleges that Ticketmaster has “reaped huge earnings by misrepresenting the entire value of tickets to shoppers, who pay billions of {dollars} annually in necessary charges not mirrored within the listing value.”
Though artists set costs and limits for what number of tickets every person can purchase in an try and make the method extra accessible for followers, the FTC additionally alleges that Ticketmaster knowingly permits scalpers to exceed these limits. In response to the lawsuit, “brokers” are in a position to buy 1000’s of tickets to a single occasion after which resell them on Ticketmaster’s secondary marketplace for considerably increased costs. The FTC says that is doable as a result of Ticketmaster and Reside Nation “knowingly permit, and actually even encourage, brokers to make use of a number of Ticketmaster accounts to avoid Ticketmaster’s personal safety measures and entry management Programs,” which is a direct violation of the Higher On-line Ticket Gross sales Act.
Whereas Ticketmaster has argued that scalpers and bots are the explanation followers miss out on face worth tickets within the first place, the FTC claims Ticketmaster is knowingly benefitting from this technique by “triple dipping” on charges — first when scalpers purchase them within the major market, adopted by after they listing them on the resale market, and eventually when followers purchase them secondhand. The FTC estimates that Ticketmaster has charged $3.7 billion in charges on resale tickets from 2019 via 2024.
Reside Nation and Ticketmaster haven’t responded to NPR’s requests for remark.
The FTC criticism follows an antitrust lawsuit filed by the Division of Justice and 30 states in 2024 to interrupt up Ticketmaster and Reside Nation, citing considerations that an unlawful monopoly over ticketing, promotion, venue possession and administration may drive up ticket costs.
“The DOJ’s lawsuit will not decrease ticket costs for followers or handle the problems they care about—service charges and entry to in-demand exhibits,” Reside Nation mentioned in a press release to NPR earlier this 12 months. “The true drawback is the secondary market the place resellers drive up costs and siphon billions out of the trade, hurting each artists and followers.”
Final August, the UK’s Competitors and Market Authority launched an investigation into Ticketmaster’s use of dynamic pricing for Oasis reunion ticket gross sales. In 2022, Taylor Swift followers filed a lawsuit in opposition to Ticketmaster and Reside Nation accusing the businesses of value gouging tickets for the Eras Tour.
