FTC Sues Taylor Swift & Springsteen Reseller

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has filed a lawsuit against Key Investment Group and its network of affiliated companies, alleging the Maryland-based ticket brokering operation used illegal tactics to purchase and resell hundreds of thousands of concert tickets by artists including Taylor Swift and Bruce Springsteen at inflated prices.

The allegations:

• Key Investment Group – which operates Totaltickets.com, Totally Tickets and Front Rose Tickets – is accused of violating the Better Online Ticket Sales Act (BOTS Act) and generating approximately $64 million in secondary sales revenue.

• This comes just weeks after Key requested a judge stop BOTS Act enforcement.

• According to the FTC complaint, the defendants purchased at least 379,776 tickets from Ticketmaster between November 2022 and December 2023 at a cost of nearly $57 million, and resold a portion of them on secondary platforms for $64 million.

• As per the court documents, the brokers purchased 2,280 tickets across 38 Taylor Swift shows for a total of $744,970 and resold them for $1,961,981, a profit of more than $1.2 million.

• 277 different accounts were used to purchase 1,530 tickets to Bruce Springsteen’s September 1, 2023, show at MetLife Stadium, resulting in a profit of $20,901.

• The case is one of the most significant enforcement actions ever under the BOTS Act.

The methods:

• The FTC alleges that Key and its affiliates employed several different methods to navigate ticket purchase limits such as:

• Utilizing thousands of fake accounts

• Using thousands of virtual and traditional credit cards

• IP masking

• SIM farms

• It also alleges the defendants distributed flyers in Maryland recruiting people to create fake accounts, for which they would receive money.

What they said:

• Andrew N. Ferguson, FTC Chairman: “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. 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.”