The FTC has filed a bombshell lawsuit against Ticketmaster, accusing the online ticket broker of raking in profits through excessive fees and turning a blind eye to bots illegally reselling millions of tickets to customers.
The New York Post reports that the FTC has taken legal action against Ticketmaster, filing a lawsuit in California federal court on Thursday. The lawsuit alleges that Ticketmaster, a subsidiary of Live Nation, has engaged in sweeping violations of the Better Online Ticket Sales Act (BOTS Act), which prohibits the use of bots to purchase tickets in bulk for resale purposes.
The FTC’s complaint centers around three primary charges against Ticketmaster. Firstly, the company is accused of misleading customers by listing deceptively low ticket prices during the initial search process, only to significantly increase prices at checkout with mandatory fees that can reach up to 30 percent or more of the original price. Secondly, Ticketmaster allegedly allowed third-party brokers to exceed ticket purchase limits meant to ensure fair access to popular events, despite publicly claiming that these limits were being enforced. As a result, customers are left with no choice but to pay inflated prices on the secondary market if they wish to attend their desired events.
Thirdly, the FTC alleges that Ticketmaster is incentivized to allow bot activity because it profits from fees and markups when tickets are resold on its platform. The company is also accused of failing to implement better technology to combat bots, as doing so would potentially decrease its revenue.
The lawsuit seeks billions of dollars in penalties under the BOTS Act, which allows for fines of $53,000 per violation. Given the scale of the alleged violations, with millions of tickets potentially affected, the total amount of fines could theoretically reach hundreds of billions of dollars. Additionally, if Ticketmaster loses the case and is found to have harmed consumers, it may face future refund payments to affected customers.
The filing of the lawsuit comes after settlement talks between FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson’s office and Ticketmaster officials failed to reach an agreement last week. The legal action is a direct result of President Trump’s executive order in March, which instructed the FTC to step up enforcement of the BOTS Act. The order was signed at an Oval Office event attended by Kid Rock, who has been a vocal advocate for cracking down on scalpers who sell tickets at exorbitant markups.
From 2019 to 2024, customers spent more than $82.6 billion on tickets brokered by Ticketmaster, according to the FTC. The company’s alleged practices have drawn criticism from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, with calls for action against the company’s dominant market position and alleged predatory practices. Ticketmaster reportedly controls an estimated 70 to 80 percent of the primary ticket sale market, making it a prime target for scrutiny.
Read more at the New York Post here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.
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