U. S. regulators have launched legal action against Live Nation Entertainment and its Ticketmaster unit, accusing them of enabling deceptive resale practices that force fans to pay well above face value for live events. The Federal Trade Commission, joined by attorneys general from seven states, filed the lawsuit in California, alleging that Ticketmaster colluded with brokers to violate ticketing limits and mislead consumers about final costs.
The complaint states that Ticketmaster allowed brokers to bypass purchase caps imposed by artists by using dozens or hundreds of account aliases and proxy IP addresses. These tickets were then resold on Ticketmaster’s own platform, often at steep mark-ups, yielding tens of billions in fees between 2019 and 2024. The FTC claims some fees amounted to as much as 44% of the advertised ticket price. Regulators assert that Ticketmaster advertised lower ticket prices and only disclosed the full cost—with all fees—at the end of the checkout process.
Among the states joining the lawsuit are Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Nebraska, Tennessee, Utah and Virginia. The lawsuit also cites internal email evidence showing that company executives—including those at Live Nation—were aware of broker abuse but chose not to deploy systems that could block bots or enforce purchase limits more strictly, reportedly because tighter controls would reduce revenue. An internal review in 2018 found that five brokers between them managed over 6,300 accounts and held nearly 250,000 tickets across thousands of events.
The alleged practices violate the Better Online Ticket Sales Act as well as consumer protection laws, regulators say. Between 2019 and 2024, Americans spent over US$82.6 billion on tickets through Ticketmaster; of that amount, mandatory fees collected from consumers alone exceeded US$16.4 billion. Resale revenues and mark-ups added billions more. Ticketmaster is said to control roughly 80% of primary ticketing for major concert venues, giving it market power that amplifies the effect of the alleged misconduct.
Ticketmaster and Live Nation have previously drawn criticism over their handling of high-demand events, notably when demand for tickets to some major tours overwhelmed systems and frustrated consumers. This lawsuit adds to earlier antitrust scrutiny, including a Justice Department effort intended to break up Live Nation and Ticketmaster over concerns about monopolistic control of concerts and ticket sales.
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