Topline
Ticketmaster said it would bar users and ticket brokers from making multiple accounts, require resellers to use taxpayer ID verification and deploy AI tools for “faster assessment and cancellation of bot-purchased tickets” amid a Federal Trade Commission lawsuit accusing the platform of scheming with resellers to jack up prices.
The Federal Trade Commission sued Ticketmaster and Live Nation last month. (Photo by Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
NurPhoto via Getty Images
Key Facts
In an attempt to “increase the percentage of tickets going to real fans,” Ticketmaster will limit users and ticket brokers to only one account, which it will enforce through Social Security number or other taxpayer ID verification and AI-powered screening that will cancel scalper accounts, the company said in a letter to Sens. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M.
The letter, penned by Live Nation executive vice president Daniel M. Wall and shared with Forbes by Live Nation, also said Ticketmaster will not allow ticket brokers to exceed the platform’s ticket resale limits, a company policy the Federal Trade Commission accused it of failing to enforce.
Ticketmaster will also shut down TradeDesk, an inventory tool meant to allow resellers to track their ticket sales, after the FTC accused it of being a tool to help ticket scalpers scam customers—though Live Nation denied this allegation and said it would shut the tool down to avoid reputational harm.
Live Nation disputed other allegations the FTC made in a September lawsuit, calling the allegation that Ticketmaster colludes with ticket resellers to hike prices “categorically false,” noting it would make “no economic sense” because ticket resales account for just 3% of Live Nation’s revenue.
The company denied the FTC’s allegation that Live Nation and Ticketmaster violate the Better Online Ticket Sales Act, a 2016 law meant to stop bots from reselling tickets at high prices, stating it has invested more than $1 billion in bot prevention and blocked 8.7 billion bots in April 2025 alone.
Forbes has reached out to Ticketmaster and Live Nation for comment.
The Ftc Lawsuit Accuses Ticketmaster Of Deceiving Customers And Artists
The FTC and seven states sued Live Nation and Ticketmaster in a lawsuit last month, accusing the ticketing companies of deceiving customers and artists by allowing consumers to mass purchase tickets and resell them at high prices. The FTC said this allows Live Nation and Ticketmaster to “triple dip” on ticketing fees—first by collecting a fee from the initial sale, then by collecting fees from resellers when they sell tickets and from consumers who buy the resale tickets. The FTC lawsuit cited an email from a Ticketmaster executive who claimed the companies “turn a blind eye as a matter of policy” to resellers who exceed the platform’s limits on how many tickets they buy and resell. The companies allegedly said in 2021 they would not use third-party verification to stop ticket resellers because the measure was “too effective,” the FTC suit claims. The suit says Ticketmaster and Live Nation charged $16.4 billion in fees between 2019 and 2024, with $3.7 billion coming from fees on resale tickets alone. Weeks after the lawsuit was filed, Blackburn and Luján sent a letter to Live Nation demanding a response to the FTC’s allegations.
Key Background
Ticketmaster’s high resale prices have long frustrated consumers and lawmakers. Scrutiny over the ticketing platform’s practices has grown following several high-profile ticketing catastrophes, like Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour ticket sales in 2022, which crashed the platform’s servers and left many fans either without tickets or facing astronomical prices. The Justice Department sued to break up Live Nation last year following a probe to determine whether it holds a monopoly in the ticketing industry. Ticketmaster is also under investigation in the United Kingdom over its controversial “dynamic pricing” practice, which causes ticket prices to spike in response to high demand.
Further Reading
FTC Sues Ticketmaster And Live Nation Over High-Priced Ticket Resales (Forbes)