Overview

• Filed Aug. 18 in Maryland federal court, the complaint names Key Investment Group and three executives and alleges violations of the BOTS Act and the FTC Act, seeking injunctions, damages and civil penalties.
• Regulators say the operation used thousands of fictitious or purchased Ticketmaster accounts, virtual and traditional credit cards, proxy or spoofed IP addresses and SIM banks to bypass purchase caps.
• The FTC alleges the defendants bought at least 379,776 tickets between Nov. 1, 2022 and Dec. 30, 2023 for about $57 million, reselling portions for roughly $64 million at significant markups.
• Examples include 49 accounts used to buy 273 tickets for a March 2023 Taylor Swift show in Las Vegas and 277 accounts used to buy 1,530 tickets for Bruce Springsteen’s Sept. 1, 2023 MetLife Stadium date, generating about $119,000 and $21,000 respectively.
• Key Investment Group disputes the allegations, says it did not use bots and has sued the FTC to block the probe, arguing the agency is misapplying the BOTS Act; Ticketmaster is not a defendant and faces separate antitrust scrutiny with parent Live Nation.