A federal judge has ruled that Ticketmaster can face liability under the Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act for allegedly enabling mass-scale ticket reselling on its secondary market. On September 28, Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong denied Ticketmaster’s motion to dismiss the FTC lawsuit filed a year prior, allowing the case to proceed to the evidence discovery phase.
The FTC sued Ticketmaster and parent company Live Nation, alleging they violated the BOTS Act by allowing brokers to bypass ticket purchasing limits using hundreds or thousands of fake accounts. According to the lawsuit, Ticketmaster enabled this conduct so brokers would resell large volumes of tickets on its own secondary market, generating billions of dollars in resale fees for the platform.
Ticketmaster argued the BOTS Act applies only to individual resellers, not ticketing platforms. Judge Frimpong rejected this interpretation, writing: “The BOTS Act does not preclude platforms from facing liability, and the court will not read it as doing so.” The judge cited internal communications, including an email from a senior executive stating they “turn a blind eye as a matter of policy” to broker violations.
The judge also ruled the FTC can pursue deceptive business practice claims over drip pricing—the practice of adding fees at checkout. Though Ticketmaster says it now uses all-in pricing, the court found the previous “plus fees” qualifier could be considered “vague and ambiguous” enough to sustain the FTC’s claims.
Ticketmaster stated: “We remain the leader in the fight against bots and other technical exploits that scalpers use to steal tickets from real fans. We continue to believe that this lawsuit is misguided and will ultimately fail.” The case will now enter discovery, followed by trial unless a settlement is reached.
Source: Billboard
