The FTC is suing Live Nation and Ticketmaster over claims that the company has taken part in allegedly illegal ticket resale practices. The United States federal government and seven states are suing Ticketmaster and its parent company, Live Nation Entertainment, for allegedly failing to crack down on ticket resellers. They have claimed that ticket resellers are allegedly forcing customers to “pay substantially more than face value” for popular concerts and events.
According to CNN, the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) announced series of accusations against Live Nation in its press release this Thursday. They included claims of alleged “bait-and-switch pricing,” where consumers allegedly pay more than advertised. The FTC also accused the company of allegedly imposing false “strict limits” on ticket purchases, claiming that “ticket brokers routinely and substantially exceeded those limits.”
“American live entertainment is the best in the world and should be accessible to all of us,” said FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson in a release. “It should not cost an arm and a leg to take the family to a baseball game or attend your favorite musician’s show.”
The FTC also claimed that Ticketmaster fees are allegedly kept hidden from customers until the end of the purchase, allegedly accounting for nearly “44% of the final cost of the ticket” (or almost $20 billion in fees in the span of less than decade). The FTC is claiming that Ticketmaster and Live Nation’s business practices allegedly violate President Trump’s executive order titled “Better Online Ticket Sales Act” (BOTS Act), which allows the agency to take action against individuals and companies that allegedly use bots to buy concert tickets in bulk and resell them. This is just one of several lawsuits against Live Nation and Ticketmaster.
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