IP Law Daily, TECHNOLOGY/INTERNET NEWS: FTC, States sue Live Nation and Ticketmaster over illegally harvested tickets, (Sep 18, 2025)

By Jody Coultas, J.D.

Ticketmaster allegedly used deceptive pricing tactics to sell tickets illegally acquired by brokers.

The FTC announced that the agency, along with seven states, has filed suit against Live Nation and Ticketmaster for allegedly coordinating with ticket brokers and allowing them to harvest millions of dollars in ticket sales. The FTC further alleged in a complaint that Ticketmaster deceived artists and consumers by engaging in bait-and-switch pricing through advertising lower prices for tickets than what consumers must pay to purchase tickets in violation of the FTC Act and Better Online Ticket Sales Act (BOTS Act).

California-based Ticketmaster, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Live Nation, is the leading provider of tickets for concerts—controlling about 80% or more of major concert venues’ primary ticketing. The company also has a growing share of ticket resales in the secondary market. The ticket prices and per-event ticket purchase limits on Ticketmaster and Live Nation website are primarily determined by the artists, the goal being to limit the number of tickets that wind up in the hands of scalpers and resale sites.

Resale ticket market. Although Ticketmaster has stated publicly that its business practices are at odds with brokers that routinely exceed ticket limits, it has acknowledged that it benefits from brokers preventing ordinary Americans from purchasing tickets to the shows they want to see at the prices artists set. A senior Ticketmaster executive admitted in an internal email that the companies “turn a blind eye as a matter of policy” to brokers’ violations of posted ticket limits. For example, an internal review showed that just five brokers controlled 6,345 Ticketmaster accounts and possessed 246,407 concert tickets to 2,594 events.

The FTC alleged that Ticketmaster not only is Ticketmaster aware of brokers circumventing security measures, but has actually been working with scalpers and allowing them to unlawfully purchase millions of dollars in tickets in the primary market. Those sales allegedly allow Ticketmaster to make additional profits when reselling those tickets on the secondary market. These practices frustrate artists’ desire to maintain affordable ticket prices and cost ordinary fans millions of dollars every year.

Ticketmaster and Live Nation offer technological support to brokers through a software platform called TradeDesk, which enables brokers to track and aggregate tickets purchased from multiple Ticketmaster accounts into a single interface for simpler resale management. Through TradeDesk, Ticketmaster can identify which high-volume brokers are exceeding ticket limits through the use of hundreds, or even thousands, of Ticketmaster accounts.

The companies also have consistently declined to deploy additional technology that would more effectively prevent brokers from evading ticket limits because such tactics would decrease their revenue, according to internal company documents. For example, the company in 2021 opted against using third-party identity verification because it was “too effective.”

Pricing. Ticketmaster also allegedly deceived consumers by advertising list prices for tickets that were substantially lower than the actual cost consumers paid after fees and markups were added. The FTC alleged that Ticketmaster hid the mandatory fees, which are as high as 44% of the cost of the ticket, that it didn’t add the fees to the price of tickets until the very end of the transaction, and still failed to clearly detail the extra fees before consumers paid for the tickets. Ticketmaster has acknowledged internally that it engaged in deceptive pricing and deliberately continued that approach after internal research showed consumers were less likely to purchase tickets when they are informed of the true cost upfront.

Related claims. The Justice Department and the FTC jointly launched a public inquiry to identify unfair and anticompetitive practices and conduct in the live concert and entertainment industry. The agencies invited the public to submit comments and information on harmful practices and on potential regulation or legislation to protect consumers in the industry.

Companies: Live Nation Entertainment, Inc.; Ticketmaster, LLC

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