Lawyers for Live Nation and Ticketmaster are calling for the dismissal of a lawsuit brought against them last September by the Federal Trade Commission and seven states in a motion filed Jan. 6.
The companies claim that the suit is an “egregious instance of agency overreach” and that much of the FTC’s case against them, which cites the Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act of 2016, is a misapplication of that law.
The lawsuit claims the companies enabled scalpers to purchase beyond their advertised ticket purchasing limits, allowing for the resale of tickets at steep markups far above face value.
“This statute is designed to help ticket issuers like Ticketmaster combat ticket harvesting and scalping, ensuring that tickets are accessible to genuine fans,” their lawyers wrote. “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.”
The companies later admit that despite “Ticketmaster’s efforts, scalpers persist in using technology to step in front of fans to obtain an outsized share of tickets and resell them at marked up prices in a multibillion-dollar resale market. For instance, brokers create hundreds or thousands of Ticketmaster accounts to buy more tickets without exceeding the per-account ticket limit. Scalpers also use software that allows them to log into multiple accounts at the same time to bypass screening and verification measures,” they wrote. The motion asserts that Ticketmaster is the intermediary of person-to-person resales, not a reseller itself.
Live Nation is already facing another federal case, with arguably bigger stakes, after being sued by the Biden administration’s Department of Justice for having a supposed monopoly on the live events business. “We allege that Live Nation relies on unlawful, anticompetitive conduct to exercise its monopolistic control over the live events industry in the United States at the cost of fans, artists, smaller promoters, and venue operators,” then-Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement announcing that suit.
As Variety previously reported, Live Nation’s stock price increased dramatically in the wake of Trump’s re-election in Nov. 2024. “We believe at least some parts of the case reflect a much more interventionist philosophy than you’d expect from a Republican administration,” said Live Nation CFO Joe Berchtold at the time. Live Nation’s stock price was $144 at market close Wednesday.
Notably, in May of last year Live Nation voted to add Trump appointee and veteran Republican Richard Grenell, who currently oversees the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, to its board. Trump’s recent rebranding of the Center has resulted in several canceled performances.
Grenell’s joining of Live Nation’s board followed Trump’s Executive Order in March that directed the FTC to “rigorously enforce” the BOTS Act in collaboration with State Attorneys General.
A hearing on yesterday’s Live Nation/Ticketmaster recent motion is scheduled for Feb. 19.