Overview

• Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, the 84‑page complaint seeks permanent injunctions, monetary relief and civil penalties.
• The FTC alleges tacit coordination with brokers who bypass purchase limits using multiple accounts, constituting violations of the BOTS Act.
• Regulators say Ticketmaster used bait‑and‑switch pricing that hid mandatory fees raising totals by up to roughly 30%–44%, citing $16.4 billion in fees from 2019–2024 and fee “triple dipping” on resales.
• Internal materials cited in the suit include a review finding five brokers controlled 6,345 Ticketmaster accounts holding 246,407 tickets, plus emails saying the company would “turn a blind eye” and descriptions of broker tools such as the TradeDesk platform.
• The action runs alongside the DOJ’s 2024 antitrust case seeking structural remedies, with the FTC noting Ticketmaster’s control of roughly 80% of primary concert ticketing and $82.6 billion in ticket purchases processed from 2019–2024.