Live Nation Says FTC Lawsuit Over Ticket Prices Must Be Tossed Out: ‘Egregious Overreach’

The case accused Ticketmaster of “tacitly coordinating” with scalpers, allowing them to buy up tickets and jack up prices. Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto via Getty Images Trending on Billboard Live Nation and Ticketmaster want a judge to dismiss the Federal Trade Commission’s lawsuit claiming the companies have enabled scalpers to jack up concert prices, calling it an “unprecedented” use of federal ticketing laws. Related The FTC sued the live giants last year, claiming they had engaged in years of “unfair and deceptive practices” that hurt consumers, including allowing brokers to buy up tickets and resell them at sky-high prices. The case came as spiking prices have rankled fans during a post-pandemic concert boom. But in a motion filed Tuesday in federal court, Live Nation and Ticketmaster called the FTC’s case an “egregious instance of agency overreach” that should be tossed out of court immediately. In doing so, they accused the feds of misusing the BOTS Act, a 2016 law aimed at quashing scalping, in ways unintended by the lawmakers who wrote it. “This statute is designed to help ticket issuers like Ticketmaster combat ticket harvesting and scalping, ensuring that tickets are accessible to genuine fans,” the company’s lawyers write. “Plaintiffs now ask
Read More