The Federal Commerce Fee and state prosecutors on Thursday filed a joint lawsuit towards Stay Nation Leisure and Ticketmaster accusing the occasion companies of permitting brokers to scoop up occasion tickets and resell them at inflated costs, costing customers billions of {dollars}.
In a authorized complaint filed within the U.S. District Courtroom for the Central District of California, the regulatory company additionally alleged that Stay Nation, which owns Ticketmaster, used “bait-and-switch pricing” techniques by promoting decrease ticket costs than what was truly out there to prospects, and by promoting thousands and thousands of tickets to brokers— usually at a major markup — regardless of limits that artists had positioned on such gross sales.
“The FTC alleges that in public, Ticketmaster maintains that its enterprise mannequin is at odds with brokers that routinely exceed ticket limits,” the company mentioned in a information release. “However in non-public, Ticketmaster acknowledged that its enterprise mannequin and backside line profit from brokers stopping extraordinary Individuals from buying tickets to the reveals they wish to see on the costs artists set.”
The company mentioned Stay Nation’s and Ticketmaster’s enterprise practices violate the Higher On-line Ticket Gross sales Act and different legal guidelines barring misleading gross sales techniques.
Becoming a member of the FTC go well with have been attorneys basic in Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Nebraska, Tennessee, Utah and Virginia.
“It mustn’t value an arm and a leg to take the household to a baseball sport or attend your favourite musician’s present,” FTC Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson mentioned in a statement.
From 2019 to 2024, customers spent practically $83 billion shopping for tickets by way of Ticketmaster, the FTC mentioned. The platform controls at the very least 80% of the tickets bought by main occasion venues, in accordance with the company.
Stay Nation, based mostly in Beverly Hills, Calif., and Ticketmaster did not instantly reply to a request for remark.
In Could, the Division of Justice filed a federal lawsuit accusing the 2 firms of illegally monopolizing the dwell leisure trade. The go well with alleged that Stay Nation has violated antitrust legal guidelines in ways in which harm customers, partially by way of its possession of Ticketmaster.
