FTC says group flooded Ticketmaster with fake accounts to buy up tickets

Federal regulators are suing a ticket broker accused in a multimillion-dollar scheme to resell thousands of tickets to live events, including Taylor Swift's record-setting "The Eras Tour," by bypassing Ticketmaster security measures.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed its suit against Key Investment Group LLC and its affiliates Monday, alleging that the Maryland-based ticket reseller used clandestine measures — including purchasing sham accounts and masking IP addresses — to get around Ticketmaster's ticket purchasing limits.

After quickly amassing thousands of tickets for concerts and other events through the fake accounts, the alleged scammers then resold them to fans at higher prices, the lawsuit claims.

The FTC detailed as an example in its complaint how the effort worked with Swift's sold-out shows, noting that over five months in 2023, the group bought 2,280 tickets to 38 stops on the "The Eras Tour."

"Defendants paid $744,970.29 for these tickets and resold them for $1,961,980.65, netting $1,217,010.36 in revenue," the lawsuit states.

The Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act, which was signed into law in 2016, prohibits efforts to circumvent "control measures used by Internet ticket sellers to ensure equitable consumer access to tickets for any given event."

Frustrations have persisted, though, as bots have continued to grab tickets for the marked-up resell market.

"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," FTC Chair Andrew N. Ferguson said in a statement. “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."