FTC Sues Ticket Reseller Who Asked Courts To Stop BOTS Act Enforcement

The Federal Trade Commission has filed suit against Key Investment Group, the owner of several ticket resale sites, alleging violations of the BOTS Act, just weeks after Key asked a judge to enjoin the feds from doing so.

The suit, filed in federal court in Maryland, says Key — which operates Totaltickets.com, Totally Tickets and Front Rose Tickets — allegedly used unlawful tactics to exceed purchasing limits for Taylor Swift’s “Eras Tour.”

“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,” said FTC Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson. “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.”

The FTC says Key used “thousands of Ticketmaster accounts to purchase tickets,” “utilizing thousands of virtual and traditional credit card numbers” and used spoofed IP addresses and mobile phone numbers to “purchase at least 379,776 tickets in just over a year from Ticketmaster at a cost of nearly $57 million,” and reselling them for more than $64 million.

“For just one Taylor Swift concert, the defendants allegedly used 49 different accounts to purchase 273 tickets, dramatically exceeding the Eras Tour’s 2023 six-ticket purchase limit per event. They then resold those tickets at a significant markup,” the FTC said.

Interestingly those tactics the FTC says violate the law were admitted to by Key in their injunction request in late July.

In that suit, also filed in Maryland’s Northern District, Key says it could not be charged with BOTS Act violations because it only used digital tools with human users, rather than “bots,” to purchase tickets and saiud Ticketmaster does not actually “enforce posted event ticket purchasing limits or to maintain the integrity of posted online ticket purchasing order rules,” and that Ticketmaster is “well aware” of the various tools used by the secondary industry, including the IP-spoofing browser, multiple SIM cards and pseudonymous accounts.

“Ticketmaster is and has been at all times aware of Key Investment Group’s use of multiple accounts, some of which use pseudonyms. Ticketmaster has both expressly and impliedly authorized KIG’s use of same,” the suit continues, by way of example.