Pop star Taylor Swift performs during The Eras Tour.

By Chris Spiker From Daily Voice

The federal government is suing a Maryland ticket broker, accusing the company of scooping up hundreds of thousands of tickets for major events, including Taylor Swift's record-breaking Eras Tour.

The Federal Trade Commission announced the lawsuit against Key Investment Group on Monday, Aug. 18. The Pikesville, MD-based broker has operated under names like Epic Seats, TotalTickets.com LLC, and Totally Tix LLC.

Investigators said Key Investment Group resold the tickets at steep markups that generated about $64 million in sales. Three of the company's executives are named in the FTC's complaint, including CEO Yair Rozmaryn.

The FTC claims Key Investment Group evaded Ticketmaster's safeguards by creating thousands of accounts, many of them fake or purchased from third parties. 

"These security measures include monitoring whether purchases are associated with verifiable Ticketmaster accounts and unique credit cards and IP addresses," the FTC said. "In addition, Ticketmaster sometimes requires purchasers to enter a code sent to their cell phone to verify their accounts."

According to the complaint, Key Investment Group used thousands of credit card numbers, hid their identity with spoofed IP addresses, and relied on SIM boxes to intercept cell phone verification codes. Those tactics allowed the brokers to buy at least 379,776 tickets in just over a year, spending nearly $57 million. 

The FTC said the broker profited by more than $1.2 million from reselling tickets to 38 of Swift's concerts in 2023. For one concert alone in Las Vegas, the operation used 49 different accounts to purchase 273 tickets, far above the Eras Tour's six-ticket limit per buyer.

Key Investment Group is also accused of using 277 accounts to buy 1,530 tickets to a Bruce Springsteen concert in September 2023 at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. The group pocketed about $21,000 from the resold tickets.

The Eras Tour grossed more than $2 billion and generated a $10 billion economic impact on local economies, according to Kevin Evers, author of the book "There's Nothing Like This: The Strategic Genius of Taylor Swift." The tour concluded in Vancouver on Sunday, Dec. 8, 2024, after more than 150 concerts across five continents.

The lawsuit comes less than a week after Swift announced her 12th studio album called "The Life of a Showgirl," which is expected to be released on Friday, Oct. 3.