FTC investigating live nation ticketmaster

Photo Credit: Live Nation

The FTC’s fight to curb bots in the ticketing industry turns the spotlight on Live Nation and Ticketmaster with allegations of BOTS Act non-compliance.

A probe by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has been investigating whether Live Nation’s Ticketmaster has been doing enough to prevent bots from scooping up and reselling tickets on its platform. The investigation—which is at an advanced stage, according to Bloomberg—focuses on the ticketing platform’s compliance with the Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act.

Investigators for the FTC are also assessing whether Ticketmaster has a financial incentive to allow resellers to circumvent its ticket purchase limits, according to Bloomberg’s report. A decision on whether to pursue a case against Live Nation and Ticketmaster could arrive within a matter of weeks.

“We haven’t violated the BOTS Act and will vigorously defend any such claims,” said a spokesperson for Ticketmaster in a statement to Reuters. “However, we would prefer to work with the FTC to implement policies to improve the ticketing industry.”

“We believe the FTC has a fundamental misunderstanding of Ticketmaster’s policies and is taking an excessively expansionist view of the BOTS Act,” they added.

The BOTS Act, which was passed in 2016, prohibits the use of bots and other means to bypass ticket purchase limits set by online sellers. Ticketmaster asserts it blocks 200 million bots per day—five times that of 2019, the spokesperson claimed.

In August, the FTC sued ticket reseller Key Investment Group with allegations of evading purchase limits to scoop up thousands of tickets for live events and selling them at an inflated price. The FTC has also been seeking information from artists and fans alike about anticompetitive practices in the live event industry as part of a broader crackdown on ticket scalping.

News of the FTC’s probe into Ticketmaster is just the latest pitfall for Live Nation, which has been in the regulatory crosshairs. Last year, the U.S. Department of Justice sued both companies for alleged anticompetitive practices across the live event industry.