By: Rose Soltani

The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”), joined by several states, recently filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California against Ticketmaster and its parent company, Live Nation, for engaging in illegal ticket retail tactics.[1] The lawsuit alleges that Ticketmaster enables large-scale ticket scalping, allowing tickets to go on secondary markets that dramatically increase ticket prices for everyday consumers.[2] The FTC has kept an eye on this issue following the Taylor Swift Eras Tour in 2022, when thousands of tickets were purchased and resold on secondary markets at arbitrarily inflated prices.[3] But what do we really know about Ticketmaster?

Ticketmaster controls about 80% of the ticket market, making it the primary provider for concert tickets.[4] “From 2019 to 2024 . . . consumers spent more than $82.6 billion purchasing tickets” through the platform.[5] Founded in the late 1970s, Ticketmaster has only become more popular as consumers continue to discover artists on social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, Soundcloud, and Spotify.[6] Even with competitors such as SeatGeek in the market, Ticketmaster’s overwhelming market share and near-monopoly makes genuine competition almost impossible.[7]

“The FTC . . . allege[s] . . . that [the company] deceive[s] artists and consumers by engaging in bait-and-switch pricing through advertising lower prices for tickets than what consumers must pay to purchase” them.[8] While the bait-and-switch tactic typically involves luring a consumer to buy a more expensive product, here the dynamic is simpler: consumers are effectively forced to accept the higher price if they want to attend the show at all because they have no other affordable options.[9]

The agency also claims that Ticketmaster misrepresents its enforcement of ticket purchase limits, allowing brokers to routinely exceed those limits in a practice known as scalping.[10] Accordingly, scalpers often do this by creating several Ticketmaster accounts with different emails, names, and credit cards or by using automated bots that can check out faster than humans, bypassing built-in site security systems, and purchasing tickets in bulk within seconds.[11] Ticketmaster’s large control of the ticket market raises monopolistic and antitrust concerns.[12]

Some may argue that these practices reflect the workings of a free market, but the burden on ordinary Americans is hard to ignore.[13] Inflated prices and limited access undermine the very purpose of a ticketing system.[14] Given Ticketmaster’s near-monopoly, oversight by regulators such as the FTC is crucial in preserving fair competition.[15]

Ticketmaster’s likely arguments of trying to combat illegal tactics in this lawsuit can be anticipated based on its past actions.[16] In 2018, Ticketmaster brought suit against Prestige Entertainment West Inc. and others for using “automated programs, generally known as bots, which navigate Ticketmaster’s website and mobile app in order to purchase large quantities of tickets for resale” on third-party platforms such as StubHub for profit.[17] Ticketmaster estimated that between January 2015 and September 2016, the defendants used over 9,000 “dummy user accounts” to place more than 300,000 ticket orders.[18] In that suit, Ticketmaster claimed to have implemented several countermeasures, including CAPTCHA, “data compilation and analysis tools,” and automated features designed to prevent purchases that appeared to have been completed by bots, but these measures had not successfully worked.[19]

Although the company claims to continue developing innovative methods to combat ticket scalping, the FTC remains skeptical.[20] The issue has persisted for years, and in 2023, Live Nation faced questioning from lawmakers and competitors at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing held after widespread consumer issues during the Taylor Swift “ticket debacle.”[21] Lawmakers from both parties criticized both the company and its 2010 merger, which was only approved by the Department of Justice contingent on a consent decree agreement between Live Nation and Ticketmaster.[22] The chief executive of SeatGeek testified that “the only way to restore competition in [the ticket] industry is to break up Ticketmaster and Live Nation,” emphasizing that “as long as Live Nation remains both the dominant promoter and ticketer of major venues in the U.S. . . . the industry will continue to lack competition and struggle.”[23]

While the hearing produced no immediate policy changes, it ultimately increased political and public pressure on regulatory bodies, like the Department of Justice, to enforce antitrust laws more aggressively.[24] But this most recent lawsuit has reopened the broader debate over whether Ticketmaster operates as a monopoly and whether separating Live Nation and Ticketmaster would promote a healthier, more competitive ticketing market.[25]

The FTC’s goal is to protect consumers while promoting healthy competition, but the reality is that fans have dealt with inflated prices and limited access to events for years.[26] Notably, efforts to stop Ticketmaster’s conduct have gained bipartisan support.[27] Both the former and current presidential administrations have taken steps to address the problem, showing frustration with the ticket platform.[28] The case highlights questions about how antitrust and consumer protection law should respond to a single company dominating an industry that directly shapes access to fun experiences.[29] The FTC is seeking civil penalties against Ticketmaster and any additional monetary relief that the Court finds appropriate.[30]

The significance of this case extends beyond any penalties that Ticketmaster may face.[31] It underscores the FTC’s willingness to monitor and challenge dominant organizations in order to protect consumers. It also warns other ticketing platforms that adopting similar tactics will not go unnoticed. Regardless of the outcome, the ongoing case sends a signal that the free market is meant to foster fair and competitive conditions.

 

[1] Press Release, Fed. Trade Comm’n, FTC Sues Live Nation and Ticketmaster for Engaging in Illegal Ticket Resale Tactics and Deceiving Artists and Consumers About Price and Ticket Limits (Sep. 18, 2025), https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/09/ftc-sues-live-nation-ticketmaster-engaging-illegal-ticket-resale-tactics-deceiving-artists-consumers [https://perma.cc/46P2-HXLZ].

[2] Id. See generally Scalping, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/scalping [https://perma.cc/4F85-XDG5] (last visited Oct. 11, 2025) (defining “scalping” as “resell[ing] at greatly increased prices”).

[3] See Dee-Ann Durbin, FTC Sues Ticketmaster, Saying It Forces Fans to Pay More for Concerts and Events, Associated Press (Sep. 18, 2025, at 15:06 ET), https://apnews.com/article/ticketmaster-live-nation-ftc-tickets-lawsuit-16e87186902b029f2a4fda5334f12baf (on file with the American University Business Law Review); see also Dee-Ann Durbin, FTC Sues Ticket Reseller, Saying it Illegally Exceeded Purchase Limits for Taylor Swift, Other Shows, Associated Press (Aug. 18, 2025, at 18:08 ET), https://apnews.com/article/key-investment-group-ftc-ticker-resellers-swift-eras-tour-3eba108c09f1e6ec59978648273b1567 (on file with the American University Business Law Review); Mark Savage & Jason Armesto, Ticketmaster Apologizes For Taylor Swift Tour Sales Fiasco, BBC (Jan. 24, 2023), https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-64384304 [https://perma.cc/W8P5-BQN6].

[4] Fed. Trade Comm’n, supra note 1.

[5] Id.

[6] See Nina Sheridan, Ticketmaster Business Model: How Ticketmaster Makes Money, Latterly.org, https://www.latterly.org/ticketmaster-business-model/ [https://perma.cc/E8QP-NHHN] (last visited Oct. 11, 2025); see generally Ian Stewart, Music Discovery Trends: Where Do Fans Find New Music?, iZOTOPE (Nov. 21, 2024), https://www.izotope.com/en/learn/music-discovery-trends.html [https://perma.cc/Z94V-38HX].

[7] See Ben Sisario, 4 Takeaways from the Senate’s Hearing on Ticketmaster, Taylor Swift and Competition, N.Y. Times (May 13, 2025), https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/01/24/arts/ticketmaster-taylor-swift (on file with the American University Business Law Review).

[8] See Fed. Trade Comm’n, supra note 1.

[9] See Fed. Trade Comm’n, supra note 1; Sisario, supra note 7. See generally Bait and Switch, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bait%20and%20switch [https://perma.cc/PFW6-XAJQ] (last visited Oct. 4, 2025).

[10] See Fed. Trade Comm’n, supra note 1; see Merriam-Webster, supra note 2.

[11] See Jon Blistein, Live Nation and Ticketmaster Sued for Working with Scalpers to Make Millions on Resale Tickets, Rolling Stone (Sep. 18, 2025), https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/ftc-sues-live-nation-ticketmaster-scalpers-1235430610/ [https://perma.cc/9ZBZ-JBC7]; Ticketmaster L.L.C. v. Prestige Ent. West Inc., 315 F. Supp. 3d 1147, 1154 (C.D. Cal. 2018); see also Christine Falokun, How To Restore Fairness In Online Ticketing By Fighting Ticket Bots, DataDome, (Aug. 30, 2024), https://datadome.co/bot-management-protection/ticket-bots/ (on file with the American University Business Law Review) (explaining more in depth about how ticket scalping works via ticket bots).

[12] See Fed. Trade Comm’n, supra note 1.

[13] Layla Neelakandan, FTC Sues Ticketmaster, Live Nation, Alleging ‘Illegal’ Ticket Resale Tactics, CNBC (Sep. 18, 2025, at 16:56 ET), https://www.cnbc.com/2025/09/18/ftc-ticketmaster-live-nation-ticket-resales.html?msockid= [https://perma.cc/X8ZX-ZSM3].

[14] Id.

[15] Id.

[16] See generally Ticketmaster L.L.C. v. Prestige Ent. West Inc., 315 F. Supp. 3d 1147, 1154 (C.D. Cal. 2018).

[17] Id.

[18] Ticketmaster L.L.C. v. Prestige Ent. West Inc., 315 F. Supp. 3d 1147, 1155 (C.D. Cal. 2018).

[19] Id.

[20] Id.; see also Fed. Trade Comm’n, supra note 1.

[21] Press Release, Am. Econ. Liberties Project, Senate Judiciary Committee To DOJ: Break Up Ticketmaster (Jan. 24, 2023), https://www.economicliberties.us/press-release/senate-judiciary-committee-to-doj-break-up-ticketmaster/ [https://perma.cc/S9GC-9HQ2]; Sisario, supra note 7.

[22] Am. Econ. Liberties Project, supra note 21; Sisario, supra note 7; see Consent Decree, Cornell L. Sch., https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/consent_decree (last visited Oct. 11, 2025) (“When the government sues a person or company and the defendant agrees to stop its illegal conduct, the government may agree not to pursue the case, and the court approves and issues a consent decree.”).

[23] Ben Sisario, The Chief Executive of SeatGeek Calls for Breaking up Tickmaster and Live Nation, N.Y. Times (Jan. 24, 2023, at 11:08 ET), https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/01/24/arts/ticketmaster-taylor-swift#4-takeaways-from-the-senates-hearing-on-ticketmaster-taylor-swift-and-competition (on file with the American University Business Law Review).

[24] Id.

[25] Id.

[26] See The Antitrust Law, Fed. Trade Comm’n, https://www.ftc.gov/advice-guidance/competition-guidance/guide-antitrust-laws/antitrust-laws [https://perma.cc/E5A5-XPRC] (last visited Oct. 4, 2025).

[27] See FTC Sues Ticketmaster, Saying it Forces Fans to Pay More For Concerts and Events, supra note 3.

[28] Id.

[29] Fed. Trade Comm’n, supra note 1.

[30] Id.

[31] See id.; Neelakandan, supra note 13.