The Federal Trade Commission, along with the attorneys general of Florida, Nebraska, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, Illinois, and Colorado, sued Ticketmaster and Live Nation for several illegal ticket sale practices on Sept. 18, according to a press release from the FTC.
Most concert-goers and live event attendees buy tickets from Ticketmaster and its parent company, Live Nation, since Ticketmaster controls approximately 80% of the primary ticketing for major venues, according to the FTC.
The FTC stated that the platform’s illegal practices enable the company to earn more money, but ultimately leave fans to lose out.
Ticketmaster typically places limits on the number of tickets customers can purchase, but the FTC stated that the platform allows ticket brokers to exceed these limits, which permits reselling tickets at higher prices, a practice that Ticketmaster directly profits from.
Ticketmaster has declined to employ technology that would prevent these actions and instead offers technological support through TradeDesk, a software that allows brokers to acquire large sums of tickets. Backing these claims in its complaint with internal communication from Ticketmaster, the FTC said, “an internal review showed that just five brokers controlled 6,345 Ticketmaster accounts and possessed 246,407 concert tickets to 2,594 events.”
Additionally, the FTC accused Ticketmaster of deceiving customers by advertising ticket price listings as lower than the final total, which includes hidden fees added at checkout. The extra costs, which were as high as 44% of the ticket price, totaled $16.4 billion from 2019 to 2024.
This is not the first lawsuit Ticketmaster and Live Nation have faced. Taylor Swift fans sued Ticketmaster and Live Nation in 2022 after the ticketing site, which was unequipped to handle the demand of the “Eras Tour” ticket sale, left many fans disappointed and ticketless.
“Julie Barfuss, the lead plaintiff, told the Post that she had taken the day off work to buy tickets, and tried to check out some 41 times — so many times, in fact, that a customer service agent she chatted with told her the website had identified her as a bot,” NPR reported.
The Department of Justice and 30 states also filed an antitrust lawsuit against the two companies in 2024 for monopolistic control over the live event industry.
One of the most recent Ticketmaster frustrations occurred in September during both the pre-sale and general public sale for Ariana Grande’s “Eternal Sunshine” tour. Fans who failed to obtain tickets during the difficult process but still wanted to attend the concert were forced to pay extreme resale prices that reached upwards of thousands of dollars.
“I’ve been on the phone every second of my free time fighting for a solution,” said Grande in an Instagram story regarding the resale issue. “I hear you, and hopefully, we will be able to get more of these tickets into your hands instead of theirs. It’s not right.”
The FTC, along with the seven states, is seeking civil penalties against Ticketmaster, as well as any appropriate monetary relief that the court may award, according to their press release.
It is unclear how live event attendees may be impacted by the outcome of this case, but after years of Ticketmaster’s legal issues and customer complaints, this could be the case that sparks changes to the customer experience of live events.