The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and seven states sued Live Nation Entertainment and its subsidiary, Ticketmaster, on Sept. 18, alleging that the companies engaged in illegal ticket resale practices.
The complaint alleges that Ticketmaster and Live Nation “tacitly worked” with brokers and allowed them to evade security measures designed to prevent buyers from exceeding ticket purchase limits.
The illegally obtained tickets were later resold at inflated prices in the companies’ secondary marketplace, generating “massive profits” for Live Nation and Ticketmaster, according to the complaint.
The two companies are also accused of deceiving artists and consumers by claiming to have imposed ticket purchase limits, but routinely allowing brokers to bypass those limits, the FTC stated….