FTC Probes Live Nation/Ticketmaster for Alleged BOTS Act Violations

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is investigating whether Live Nation’s Ticketmaster is doing enough to stop bots from buying and reselling tickets on its platform.

The details:

• As per Digital Music News and Bloomberg, Ticketmaster’s compliance with the Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act is under the microscope.

• Also being investigated is whether Ticketmaster benefits financially from allowing resellers to circumvent its ticket purchase limits.

The BOTS Act:

• Was passed in 2016 to stop bots being used to bypass ticket purchase limits.

The timing:

• A decision by the FTC on whether it will pursue a case against Live Nation and Ticketmaster is expected within a few weeks.

What they said:

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

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