The company said in court papers that the law the FTC accused them of violating, the Better Online Ticket Sales Act (BOTS Act), does not apply to ticketing platforms, Reuters reported Wednesday (Jan. 7).
The BOTS Act “is designed to help ticket issuers like Ticketmaster” combat resellers’ abusive practices, the company said in the court papers, according to the report.
The company argued that resellers are the ones who sell the tickets listed on its resale platform, per the report.
The FTC and seven states sued Ticketmaster and Live Nation in September, alleging that they illegally sold event tickets acquired by brokers and deceived consumers and artists about prices and policies.
The complaint alleges that Ticketmaster violated the Federal Trade Commission Act and the BOTS Act by allowing brokers to buy tickets in the primary market in numbers that exceed artists’ ticket limits, selling those tickets at a “substantial markup” in the secondary market, and engaging in bait-and-switch pricing that concealed mandatory fees.
About six months earlier, in March, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing the attorney general and the FTC to ensure that competition laws are enforced in the concert and entertainment industry.
Live Nation also faces a separate lawsuit brought by the Justice Department and supported by 30 states in May 2024, which alleges antitrust violations and monopolistic practices in the live events industry.
This case contends that the company captures significant fees and revenue from fans and sponsorships, which it then uses to secure exclusive promotion deals with artists, and that through Ticketmaster it controls about 80% of primary ticketing for major concert venues, enabling it to stifle competition.
A Live Nation executive said of that lawsuit at the time it was filed: “It ignores everything that is actually responsible for higher ticket prices, from increasing production costs to artist popularity, to 24/7 online ticket scalping.”
The case brought by the Justice Department is set to go to trial in March, according to the Wednesday report by Reuters.
