The White House’s on-again-off-again antitrust battle has taken a new aim at Ticketmaster and its parent company Live Nation.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has filed a complaint accusing the ticketing giant of allowing brokers to exceed ticket purchase limits, then profiting when those same tickets are resold at inflated prices.
According to the FTC, customers are often forced to pay far more than the face value after resellers scoop up tickets in bulk. When those tickets are resold through Ticketmaster’s own platform, the company collects another cut—effectively profiting from the same ticket twice. The complaint further alleges that Ticketmaster leadership has turned “a blind eye as a matter of policy” to these practices, while also engaging in deceptive advertising by hiding higher prices until checkout.
Ticketmaster controls roughly 80 percent of the primary ticketing market in the U.S., leaving both fans and artists with limited alternatives. The company has long argued that technological hurdles make it difficult to stop scalpers, but regulators aren’t convinced. The FTC directly rebuked this defense, stating that Ticketmaster’s own practices force consumers into the inflated resale market, where the company continues to earn additional fees.
This latest move intensifies government scrutiny of Ticketmaster and Live Nation, whose dominance in ticket sales has drawn widespread criticism from fans, artists, and lawmakers alike.
If this article helped you, please consider supporting our work. Every small contribution keeps Abijita.com independent and running.
