Ticketmaster and its parent company Live Nation have asked a federal judge to throw out the US Federal Trade Commission’s lawsuit over ticket resales.
In a motion filed on Tuesday (January 6) with the US District Court for the Central District of California, lawyers for Live Nation and Ticketmaster said the lawsuit “reflects an egregious instance of agency overreach” and that the FTC is in effect attempting to rewrite the law by holding Ticketmaster accountable for the actions of ticket resellers.
The FTC sued Live Nation and Ticketmaster in September, arguing that the ticketing company had violated the BOTS Act by knowingly allowing ticket scalpers to buy up large blocks of tickets during on-sales. The lawsuit comes in the wake of – and is separate from – the Department of Justice antitrust lawsuit filed against Live Nation/Ticketmaster in 2024.
The BOTS Act is a 2016 law meant to prevent the use of algorithms (“bots”) to buy up large amounts of tickets that can then be resold at a markup.
That law “is designed to help ticket issuers like Ticketmaster combat ticket harvesting and scalping, ensuring that tickets are accessible to genuine fans. Plaintiffs now ask this court to take the unprecedented step of applying this law against a ticket issuer for its operation of a resale platform,” Live Nation and Ticketmaster stated in their motion to dismiss, which can be read in full here.
Ticketmaster has long come in for criticism from consumers and consumer groups over spikes in ticket prices during on-sales. There have been numerous complaints about sales for popular artists’ shows, for instance during the Bruce Springsteen on-sale in 2022. Ticketmaster has long argued that it doesn’t set ticket prices, artists themselves do, and that it is actively working against bots and scalpers.
But in its complaint last fall, the FTC said Ticketmaster has an incentive to look the other way because it makes money off tickets that are resold on its platform.
Ticketmaster “can ‘triple dip’ on fees, collecting fees from: (1) brokers when they purchase the tickets on the primary market, (2) brokers, again, when Ticketmaster sells their tickets on Ticketmaster’s secondary market, and, finally, (3) consumers who purchase tickets from Ticketmaster on its secondary market,” stated the FTC’s complaint, which can be read here.
In their motion to dismiss, Live Nation and Ticketmaster’s lawyers said the FTC had failed to show that Ticketmaster violated the BOTS Act because they didn’t allege any “circumvention” of tech designed to prevent mass purchases of tickets. They also argue that the FTC failed to show that Ticketmaster was aware of any such circumvention, and that ultimately it’s the ticketholders and not the ticketing platform that should be held accountable for illegally acquired tickets.
“Our incentives are plainly to favor artists and fans.”
Dan Wall, Live Nation
The FTC’s case “boils down to the idea that Ticketmaster is liable under the BOTS Act merely for knowing that some brokers used multiple accounts or that some accounts possessed more tickets than the ticket limit permitted,” the motion stated. “But that theory does not amount to a violation of the statute Congress enacted. Plaintiffs cannot rewrite that statute through this litigation.”
While Ticketmaster has denied colluding with scalpers, in the wake of the lawsuit the ticketing company told lawmakers it’s planning to tighten its rules around ticket resales. Dan Wall, Live Nation’s EVP for Corporate and Regulatory Affairs, said in a letter to US senators Marsha Blackburn and Ben Ray Luján that Ticketmaster aims to ban users – including ticket brokers – from operating multiple accounts on its platform.
Wall also said the allegation Live Nation colluded with scalpers is “categorically false,” and makes “no economic sense” because ticket resales account for only 3% of Live Nation’s revenue.
“Our incentives are plainly to favor artists and fans,” Wall wrote.
Live Nation has also filed a motion to dismiss the Department of Justice’s antitrust lawsuit against the company, arguing the US government is relying on “gerrymandered” evidence to show that the company enjoys monopoly power in the live music business.
Additionally, the concert and ticketing giant is facing a lawsuit from consumers alleging that Ticketmaster secretly provided tickets to brokers via “ticket banks,” while publicly claiming to fight scalpers.
A federal judge in California last month indicated he will likely allow the lawsuit to go forward as a class action, meaning millions of Ticketmaster customers could be eligible to join the suit.Music Business Worldwide
