American regulator sued ticketmaster and live nation, accused of illegal resale strategy
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and a bilateral group of the state’s Attorney General sued the ticketmaster and its original company on Thursday, saying that they were forced to pay more to pay more to watch live events through various illegal strategies.
The FTC stated that Live Nation and its subsidiary, ticketmaster, have cheated artists and consumers by advertising low ticket prices, which should be paid to consumers and claiming to impose a strict limit on the number of tickets buying for an event.
In fact, FTC said, ticketmaster coordinate with ticket brokers that bypass the ticket boundaries. FTC said that brokers use fake accounts to buy millions of dollars tickets and then sell them in adequate markup on the ticket of the ticketmaster. The ticketmaster benefited from the additional fees, which collects from the sale, FTC said.
California -based live nation entertainment has reached an associated press comment.
The US Department of Justice is sueing the Live Nation, arguing with the ticketmaster to debate the 2010 merger and the company should be demolished.
According to the ticketmaster FTC, the US concert controls 80 percent or more of the primary tickets of Venue. The agency said that consumers spent more than $ 82.6 billion to buy tickets from ticketmaster between 2019 and 2024.
FTC president Andrew Ferguson said in a statement, “The American Live Entertainment is the best in the world and should be accessible to all. The family should not have one hand and a leg spent to take into baseball game or participate in your favorite musician’s show.”
The case was filed in the US District Court for the Central District of California. The Attorney General of Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Nebraska, Tennessi, Utah and Virginia were involved in the trial.
Ticketmaster is in the sites of US MPs since 2022, when it sells ticket sales for Taylor Swift’s ERAS Tour. The company’s site was overwhelmed by fans and attacks from brokers bots, scooping tickets to sell on secondary sites. In the 2023 hearing, the senators grill the live nation.
But the improvement in the industry has been slow. The Biden administration took action with a ban on junk fees, which required the ticketmaster to display the full price of the ticket as soon as consumers start purchasing. This rule came into force in May.
US President Donald Trump has also targeted the industry. In March, Trump signed an executive order, directing US authorities to ensure that ticket reserves were complying with the internal revenue service rules. The order directed the FTC to “take enforcement action to prevent improper, misleading and opposing-intelligent conduct in the secondary ticketing market.”
In August, FTC sued the investment group of ticket broker in Maryland, alleging that it has used thousands of imaginary ticketmaster accounts and other methods to buy tickets for events including Swift visit.
Can Canada’s competition bureau suit follow the suit?
“Ticketmaster is really a frequent flying flying when it allows customers to cheat, overchard and increase the price of tickets,” said Caldon Besty said, Keladon-based Executive Director, Caldon-based Executive Director of Canadian Anti-Monopoly Project, when it allows customers to cheat, overcharge and increase the price of tickets to the skulls. “
When the US has a strong tool kit compared to Canada, when it comes to consumer protection, according to Bestor. While the federal levels focus on particularly misleading marketing strategy, the consumer protection laws related to ticket sales are handed over to the provinces, he said.
“A province like Ontario will be kept well to go after this exercise, (which) is less about deception and more about allowing the skull to run extensively,” Best said.
Back in 2018, Canada’s Competition Bureau sued the ticketmaster, alleging that the company was engaged in “drip pricing” – a practice in which a company is misleading at the final price of a product at the final price of a product.
The bureau alleged that the company is growing at least 20 percent in ticket prices and 65 percent in some cases. The company never accepted for any wrongdoing, but agreed to settle $ 6 million It was finalized This last January.
Besty hopes that the US trial will play similarly during many years, a deal will have to be attacked with the government with the company. Whether consumers will be satisfied with the end result is a different story.
“They take the opportunity to cheat customers, squeeze artists and roll the places,” Besty said. “So this is one of the reasons, among many people, that any kind of disposal or conversation agreement is unlikely to be delivered to consumers.”
A spokesperson of the Bureau of Competition Bureau told CBC News that it was known about the US case, but said that the bureau conducts its work confidentially and cannot confirm whether it is starting a similar investigation.
