"The FTC's lawsuit, filed this morning (Thursday, September 18) in a California court, alleges that Live Nation has falsely claimed to place caps on the number of tickets an individual can purchase for an event, while resellers are able to circumvent those limits by creating "thousands" of Ticketmaster accounts. A software platform called TradeDesk, also owned by Live Nation, then allows brokers to track tickets across multiple accounts simultaneously, allowing for easier resale."
"According to internal emails reportedly obtained by the FTC, Ticketmaster and Live Nation are able to identify which brokers are exceeding the posted ticket limit for a given event, but have instead opted to, in the alleged words of a senior executive, "turn a blind eye as a matter of policy." Allegedly, the companies also declined to implement technology, such as third-party verification, that would prevent mass ticket scalping for being, according to one email cited in the lawsuit, "too effective.""
FTC and seven states filed suit alleging Live Nation and Ticketmaster knowingly collaborated with secondary brokers to spike ticket prices and evade purchase limits. The complaint claims Live Nation's TradeDesk software enables brokers to create thousands of accounts and track tickets across accounts for resale. Internal emails allegedly show the company identified brokers exceeding limits but chose to "turn a blind eye as a matter of policy" and rejected anti-scalping verification technology as "too effective." The lawsuit cites violations of the FTC Act and the Better Online Ticket Sales Act and seeks enforcement to protect consumers.
Read at Pitchfork
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]