Federal Trade Commission Sues Ticketmaster and Live Nation Entertainment

Ticketmaster and its dad or mum firm, Dwell Nation Leisure, have lengthy been the goal of ire from musicians and concertgoers alike attributable to their use of hidden charges and the prevalence of ticket scalpers on their platforms. Final 12 months, beneath President Joe Biden, the USA Justice Division sued Dwell Nation, alleging that the corporate holds a monopoly within the live performance market. Now, the Federal Commerce Fee and 7 states are submitting swimsuit towards the live performance big for allegedly violating the FTC Act and the Higher On-line Ticket Gross sales Act by knowingly collaborating with secondary market brokers to spike ticket costs.

The FTC’s lawsuit, filed this morning (Thursday, September 18) in a California courtroom, alleges that Dwell Nation has falsely claimed to put caps on the variety of tickets a person should purchase for an occasion, whereas resellers are in a position to circumvent these limits by creating “hundreds” of Ticketmaster accounts. A software program platform known as TradeDesk, additionally owned by Dwell Nation, then permits brokers to trace tickets throughout a number of accounts concurrently, permitting for simpler resale.

In response to inner emails reportedly obtained by the FTC, Ticketmaster and Dwell Nation are in a position to establish which brokers are exceeding the posted ticket restrict for a given occasion, however have as an alternative opted to, within the alleged phrases of a senior government, “flip a blind eye as a matter of coverage.” Allegedly, the businesses additionally declined to implement expertise, comparable to third-party verification, that might stop mass ticket scalping for being, in response to one e mail cited within the lawsuit, “too efficient.”

“American reside leisure is the most effective on the planet and ought to be accessible to all of us,” FTC chairman Andrew N. Ferguson stated in a press release. “It shouldn’t value an arm and a leg to take the household to a baseball sport or attend your favourite musician’s present. The Trump-Vance FTC is working laborious to make sure that followers have a shot at shopping for fair-priced tickets, and immediately’s lawsuit is a monumental step in that route.”

A press release to Pitchfork from the Nationwide Impartial Expertise Group (NITO) added: “With out commenting on the particular fees, NITO applauds the Federal Commerce Fee’s efforts to reform an unfair ticketing ecosystem that too usually doesn’t serve customers or artists. Adjustments are wanted that handle extreme charges, availability of tickets for followers at truthful costs and conserving the method aligned with artists pursuits that profit their followers.”

As well as, Stephen Parker, government director of the Nationwide Impartial Venue Affiliation (NIVA) advised Pitchfork:

At present’s lawsuit has given credibility to what followers, artists, and impartial phases have believed for years: Dwell Nation and Ticketmaster exploit their dominance not simply in live performance promotion and first ticketing, however within the resale market as properly. The FTC and 7 states now allege that the identical firm that controls almost 80% of main live performance ticketing has been enabling scalpers to sport Ticketmaster’s system, reselling tickets again to followers at large markups.

This isn’t simply dangerous enterprise; it’s deception and abuse of monopoly energy. By turning a blind eye to scalpers, even giving them the instruments to bypass limits and harvest tickets, Dwell Nation has acted because the promoter, the first ticket vendor, the artists’ supervisor, and the scalper.

Impartial venues and promoters are on the frontlines of this damaged system, and it’s followers and artists who finally pay the worth. We applaud the FTC for bringing this case. It additional bolsters the U.S. Division of Justice and 40 state attorneys basic antitrust case towards Dwell Nation.

We now urge Congress, the Administration, and state legislatures to face with customers by banning speculative tickets (tickets the scalper doesn’t have), prohibiting misleading resale websites, and capping resale costs and charges. Predatory resellers – together with Dwell Nation itself – ought to now not be allowed to gouge and deceive followers beneath the guise of entry to reside music.

Final 12 months, the U.S. Home of Representatives handed the the Transparency in Fees for Key Occasions Ticketing (TICKET) Act, which might require ticket sellers on the first and secondary market to reveal whole costs up entrance. StubHub was additionally sued by the Washington, D.C. legal professional basic in 2024 for participating in “drip pricing,” whereby charges are incrementally added to a ticket’s value all through the checkout course of. Ticketmaster is at present beneath investigation by the UK and European governments for its pricing of tickets to Oasis’ reunion exhibits.