A bipartisan coalition of state attorneys general and the FTC accuse the entertainment giants of deceptive practices that deny fans fair access to tickets and drive up prices.
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti has joined a federal lawsuit led by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and a coalition of six other state attorneys general against ticketing behemoth Ticketmaster and its parent company, Live Nation Entertainment.
The lawsuit, filed in the Central District of California, alleges that the companies knowingly facilitate a massive ticket-scalping scheme that has resulted in fans being locked out of events and paying exorbitant prices.
According to the complaint, Ticketmaster was aware that ticket brokers were using sophisticated methods to bypass purchasing limits on its website.
These methods included creating hundreds of fake Ticketmaster accounts and using software to log into multiple accounts simultaneously while hiding their IP addresses. Instead of enforcing its own rules and the federal Better Online Ticket Sales Act (BOTS Act), the lawsuit claims Ticketmaster looked the other way and, in some cases, actively aided these brokers. The tickets were then resold at significantly inflated prices on Ticketmaster’s own resale platform.
“Tennessee wouldn’t be Tennessee without world-class live music from the mountains to the Mississippi,” Attorney General Skrmetti said in a statement. “When consumers line up for a show, they should never have to compete with armies of scalpers scooping up hundreds of tickets at a time. We’re fighting to level the playing field and get tickets back into the hands of real fans at fair prices.”
The lawsuit further alleges that Ticketmaster and Live Nation violated the Tennessee Consumer Protection Act by deceptively claiming that ticket limits were in place and enforced, when this was not the case for these high-volume brokers. The coalition is seeking a court order to stop these practices and monetary relief to compensate consumers who were harmed.
The coalition includes attorneys general from Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Nebraska, Utah, and Virginia, in addition to the FTC.
Key Allegations from the Lawsuit
Deceptive Pricing: The lawsuit claims Ticketmaster used a “bait and switch” approach to ticket pricing, displaying a low initial price and then adding substantial mandatory fees—often increasing the final cost by 30% or more. Internal documents cited in the complaint allegedly show that the company knew this practice caused “sticker shock” but continued it because it boosted sales. From 2019 to 2024, consumers paid over $16.4 billion in these mandatory fees.
Enabling Ticket Brokers: The complaint reveals that Ticketmaster was aware of and enabled brokers who circumvented ticket limits. One broker, for example, allegedly used over 13,000 Ticketmaster accounts from 2020 to 2024. In one instance, a single broker purchased 9,000 tickets to a Beyoncé concert, far exceeding the posted limit of eight tickets per person.
Profiting from Resale: The lawsuit alleges that Ticketmaster’s business model benefits directly from ticket scalping. The company can “triple dip” on fees, collecting them from the broker on the initial purchase, then again on the resale, and finally from the consumer who buys the resold ticket. The complaint states that from 2019 through 2024, Ticketmaster collected $986 million in resale fees from brokers. The company reportedly sold over 20 million resale tickets in 2024, up from 3.8 million in 2019. In the first quarter of 2023, 78% of the money consumers spent on resale concert tickets from Ticketmaster was on tickets listed by brokers.
Refusal to Act: The lawsuit cites internal communications showing that Ticketmaster deliberately chose not to implement effective measures against scalping because it would have a “significant negative economic impact” on its revenue. An internal analysis from 2020 revealed that limiting brokers’ over-the-limit purchases would have reduced annual resale ticket revenue by nearly $220 million. A 2021 email from a Ticketmaster employee stated that a new verification tool was “too effective” at blocking brokers and was “turned… down for now.”
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