(Nexstar) – From the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Attorney General Seven states The ticketmaster and its original company are prosecuted for making profits on fees by turning their eyes to the alleged wider, illegal resale strategy.
In the complaint, the California -based ticketmaster and its original company, Live Nation, with low advertised ticket prices and strict ticket purchases, are accused of “ticket brokers regularly and largely over those limitations.” Customers were then forced to buy the same ticket on the respective platforms of the ticketmaster at “too high cost”, the suits say.
An internal review found that only five brokers were under the control of 6,345 ticketmaster accounts and according to FTC, there were 246,407 concert tickets for 2,594 incidents.
In the trial, it was alleged that, between 2019 and 2024, the ticketmaster hid the mandatory fee, which was 44% of the cost of the ticket, “until the end of the transaction, and still failed to clearly expand additional fees before consumers before paying tickets.” According to FTC, those fees during that period were $ 16.4 billion.
FTC President Andrew N. Ferguson said in a news release, “American Live Entertainment is the best in the world and should be accessible to all of us.” “One hand and one leg should not be spent to take the family in baseball game or participate in your favorite musician’s show.”
Apply to join FTC in the case Better online ticket sales act Virginia, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Nebraska, Tennessi and Utah are the Attorney Generals.
Ticketmaster is in the places of MPs from 2022, when it Great bottled ticket sales For Taylor Swift EraThe company’s site was overwhelmed by fans and attacks from brokers bots, scooping tickets to sell on secondary sites. Senators Grilled live nation At the hearing of 2023.
Dominance of ticketmaster on industry – FTC says that the company controls 80% of the primary ticket market for major concerts – and its practices have been targeted by both Biden And Trump Administration.
In March, President Trump was Kid Joined by RockTo sign an executive order to tighten the ticket overcharging, wearing dark sunglasses and a red, white and blue suits. The order directed the FTC to “take enforcement action to prevent improper, misleading and opposing-intelligent conduct in the secondary ticketing market.”
In August, FTCMaryland -based ticket broker suedUsing the major investment group, alleging that thousands of imaginary ticketmaster accounts and other methods have been used to buy tickets for events including Swift visit.
Between 2019 and 2024, Americans spent more than $ 82.6 billion on tickets from tickets, according to FTC.
Nexstar reached the ticketmaster for comment, but did not get immediate response.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
