The Federal Trade Commission announced it has filed a lawsuit against Ticketmaster and Live Nation for allegedly using illegal tactics to deceive customers and artists.
The FTC said Ticketmaster and Live Nation coordinated with third-party ticket brokers and allowed them to harvest millions of dollars’ worth of tickets. Those tickets were then sold at prices well above face value in the secondary market, the FTC said.
The suit alleges the companies were aware that ticket brokers used fake IP addresses to get around ticket-buying limits meant to prevent brokers from purchasing tickets in mass quantities. Ticketmaster then knowingly allowed these brokers to resell the tickets at higher prices, with Ticketmaster collecting fees on the resold tickets, according to the FTC.
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