FTC charges broker over Swift resale tickets

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is suing a ticket broker for allegedly using unlawful tactics to purchase tickets and resell them at inflated prices for tours by acts including Taylor Swift and Bruce Springsteen.

The government agency alleges that Maryland-based Key Investment Group – alongside its affiliated companies and executives – used a variety of tactics to bypass Ticketmaster’s security measures to block resellers from exceeding ticket purchasing limits.

According to the FTC, the tactics allowed the defendants to purchase at least 379,776 tickets in just over a year from Ticketmaster at a cost of nearly $57 million (€49m). Defendants resold a portion of those tickets on secondary marketplaces for approximately $64m (€55m) by, in many cases, charging a significant markup to consumers, according to the complaint.

The complaint, filed in the US District Court for the District of Maryland, Northern Division, comes in the wake of the executive signed by American president Donald Trump in the spring, which pledged to bring “common sense” changes to live event ticketing.

“President Trump made it clear in his March executive order that unscrupulous middlemen who harm fans and jack up prices through anticompetitive methods will hear from us,” says FTC chair Andrew N. Ferguson. “Today’s action puts brokers on notice that the Trump-Vance FTC will police operations that unlawfully circumvent ticket sellers’ purchase limits, ensuring that consumers have an opportunity to buy tickets at fair prices.”

For just one Taylor Swift concert, the defendants allegedly used 49 different accounts to purchase 273 tickets

For just one Taylor Swift concert, the defendants allegedly used 49 different accounts to purchase 273 tickets – wildly exceeding The Eras Tour’s six-ticket purchase limit – which they then resold at a significant markup.

Meanwhile, for a Bruce Springsteen show at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium on 1 September 2023, which had a four-ticket limit per person, it is alleged the defendants used 277 different accounts to purchase 1,530 tickets. Defendants are said to have marked up and resold these tickets, netting $20,900.84 in revenue.

The complaint alleges that the defendants were often able to bypass protections by: “using thousands of Ticketmaster accounts to purchase tickets, including fictitious and third-party accounts that the defendants purchased; utilising thousands of virtual and traditional credit card numbers; hiding their identity by using proxy or spoofed IP addresses; and using SIM boxes to facilitate the receipt of verification codes sent to the phone numbers associated with the thousands of fake and third-party accounts they used to purchase tickets”.

The complaint alleges that the defendants violated the FTC Act and the Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act, which makes it illegal for any person to “circumvent a security measure, access control system, or other technological control or measure on an Internet website or online service that is used by the ticket issuer to enforce posted event ticket limits or to maintain the integrity of posted online ticket purchasing order rules”.

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