FTC sues Reside Nation and Ticketmaster alleging unlawful resale ways : NPR

The Federal Commerce Fee filed a lawsuit towards Ticketmaster and its mother or father 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 the most effective 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 biggest ticketing and stay leisure firm within the nation — of taking part in three essential unlawful practices.

First, the FTC alleges that Ticketmaster engages in a “bait and change strategy,” which means they put up ticket costs at deceptively low costs that then enhance by 30% or extra throughout checkout as a result of further charges. The grievance alleges that Ticketmaster has “reaped huge income by misrepresenting the full value of tickets to shoppers, who pay billions of {dollars} every year in necessary charges not mirrored within the checklist 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 keeping with the lawsuit, “brokers” are capable of buy hundreds of tickets to a single occasion after which resell them on Ticketmaster’s secondary marketplace for considerably greater costs. The FTC says that is doable as a result of Ticketmaster and Reside Nation “knowingly permit, and in reality even encourage, brokers to make use of a number of Ticketmaster accounts to avoid Ticketmaster’s personal safety measures and entry management Methods,” 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 once they checklist them on the resale market, and at last when followers purchase them secondhand. The FTC estimates that Ticketmaster has charged $3.7 billion in charges on resale tickets from 2019 by way of 2024.

Reside Nation and Ticketmaster haven’t responded to NPR’s requests for remark.

The FTC grievance follows an antitrust lawsuit filed by the Division of Justice and 30 states in 2024 to interrupt up Ticketmaster and Reside Nation, citing issues that an unlawful monopoly over ticketing, promotion, venue possession and administration might drive up ticket costs.

“The DOJ’s lawsuit will not decrease ticket costs for followers or tackle 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 actual downside 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 towards Ticketmaster and Reside Nation accusing the businesses of value gouging tickets for the Eras Tour.