Ticketmaster under fire for allegedly illicit ticket distribution practices, facing legal action from American regulatory body.
In a significant move, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and seven states have filed a lawsuit against Ticketmaster in a California federal court. The lawsuit alleges that Ticketmaster's pricing practices have been deceptive and misleading, resulting in hidden fees totaling $16.4 billion from 2019 to 2024.
The lawsuit targets Ticketmaster's pricing strategies, accusing the company of advertising ticket prices substantially lower than what consumers ultimately paid after mandatory fees and markups. This practice has been a source of anger and frustration for artists and spectators for decades, with Ticketmaster controlling about 80% of major concert venue ticketing in the United States.
Concertgoers have been particularly vocal about ticket issues, with complaints rising during sales for high-profile events like Taylor Swift's historic Eras Tour. The reunion tour of UK rockers Oasis also sparked furor in Britain due to dynamic pricing causing ticket prices to jump to hundreds of pounds above face-value costs.
The lawsuit further accuses Ticketmaster of allowing ticket brokers to violate purchase limits and resell tickets at marked-up prices. The FTC's complaint states that internal documents show Ticketmaster provided technological support to brokers through the software platform TradeDesk. The lawsuit alleges that Ticketmaster's software platform enabled brokers to manage tickets purchased across multiple accounts for easier resale.
Ticketmaster's dominance in the ticketing industry has been a topic of concern for many years. The company has been criticised for overpriced tickets, opaque pricing schemes, and glitches. The lawsuit is a significant step towards addressing these issues and ensuring that American live entertainment is accessible to all, as FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson emphasised, citing President Donald Trump's executive order to protect consumers from ticket pricing abuses.
The seven U.S. states involved alongside the FTC in the lawsuit against Ticketmaster are Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Nebraska, Tennessee, Utah, and Virginia. From 2019 to 2024, consumers spent more than $82.6 billion purchasing tickets from Ticketmaster, as stated by the FTC.
The lawsuit alleges that hidden fees, which reached as high as 44 percent of ticket cost, totaled $16.4 billion from 2019 to 2024. The lawsuit against Ticketmaster includes allegations that the company's practices have been deceptive and misleading to consumers. The outcome of this lawsuit could have significant implications for the ticketing industry and the way tickets are sold to consumers in the future.
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