The U.S. Federal Trade Commission sued Ticketmaster and its parent company, Live Nation.Dado Ruvic/Reuters
Canadian music, arts and sports fans could see consequences from a U.S. Federal Trade Commission lawsuit against Ticketmaster and its parent company, Live Nation, which alleges the entertainment giants made millions from co-ordinating with scalpers.
If the suit is successful, fans in Canada could stand to benefit from a more level playing field when purchasing event tickets, some experts say.
The lawsuit filed on Thursday in a U.S. District Court in California cited reports from Canadian news outlets and wielded allegations against the entertainment giant of “tacitly” co-ordinating with ticket brokers and earning “hundreds of millions” of dollars in fees by allowing them to obtain tickets in the primary market before reselling them for far above face value.
It also accused the company of knowingly letting scalpers exceed price and ticket limits set by artists while advertising tickets at lower prices before adding fees that increase the total purchase price by up to 44 per cent in a “bait and switch” move.
Ticketmaster did not respond to a request for comment.
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Kenneth Wong, professor emeritus of marketing at the Smith School of Business, said the U.S. regulator’s action is significant for fans in both the U.S. and Canada.
“Ticketmaster violations have been, you could say, rumoured or alleged for some time,” he said. This is the first time in which there’s been a formal investigation into some of the claims, with what the FTC feels to be “reasonable evidence,” Mr. Wong said.
Whatever the court orders in the U.S., the same rules would likely crop up in Canada, he said.
Notably, the U.S. case already mirrors in large part a class-action lawsuit in Ontario. That suit alleged Ticketmaster knew that many professional resellers routinely violated ticket limits on primary market sales by using multiple accounts under their control or “bots.”
Certified in 2024, the action accused the live events giant of having knowingly or deliberately “turned a blind eye” to professional resellers who purchased primary tickets contrary to ticket limits. The same accusations are levelled in the FTC complaint.
It’s “virtually the identical case as the case that we have before the Ontario courts on behalf of all Canadians,” said Jean-Marc Leclerc, a partner at Sotos Class Actions and class counsel for plaintiffs in the Ontario action. (B.C. residents are excluded but covered by a separate, continuing case, he said.)
Both the Canadian claim and the FTC lawsuit relied on evidence from Canadian news outlets.
Citing a Toronto Star and CBC investigation, the lawsuit described how one Ticketmaster sales executive told Canadian reporters in 2018 that he had brokers with hundreds of Ticketmaster accounts aggregated in singular TradeDesk accounts, referring to a ticket inventory management system used by Ticketmaster.
When asked by undercover reporters whether circumventing Ticketmaster’s controls by using multiple accounts might be detected and investigated by the company, a Ticketmaster sales executive reassured them. According to the lawsuit, the executive said Ticketmaster knew brokers buy tickets from multiple accounts and “would not crack down on accounts that exceed posted limits.”
A key difference in the U.S. filing is that it also examines deceptive “bait and switch” pricing.
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Allegations of the company’s deceptive pricing have already received significant regulatory scrutiny in Canada after the Competition Bureau sued Ticketmaster and Live Nation in 2019, resulting in a settlement that included $4.5-million in fines against the entertainment giant.
Still, if the FTC‘s lawsuit succeeds, Mr. Leclerc said it may strengthen the case against Ticketmaster in Canada and its relationship to third-party brokers while creating a more level playing field for Canadian fans.
“You have these software bots and other means which have ways of getting tickets that are not accessible to me and you that are contrary Ticketmaster’s rules − it’s not a fair system,” he said.
If the FTC case is successful, “we’ll hopefully have the impact of bringing about a fair − or a more even − playing field for everyone to have a chance at grabbing the tickets when they are released.”
Last year, Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour had tickets for Toronto and Vancouver shows sell for an average of US$6,351, locking out countless fans from the tour or driving them toward predatory resellers and fraudsters online.
Ticketmaster was criticized for its stranglehold on live events, particularly after its 2010 merger with Live Nation, which wields control over major venues.