Following last month's lawsuit by the Federal Trade Commission, Ticketmaster is pledging to change its policies.
The FTC is suing Ticketmaster and its parent company, Live Nation Entertainment, for allegedly engaging in illegal ticketing practices. In a letter to lawmakers dated Oct. 17, Live Nation Executive Vice President Daniel Wall denies FTC allegations that the company is helping resellers and said it will implement new practices to benefit concertgoers.
As part of these new policy changes, the ticket provider will no longer allow users who purchase tickets to have multiple accounts. All surplus accounts will soon be canceled and each reseller account must have a unique taxpayer ID.
According to the letter, the company also plans to shut down TradeDesk, its inventory management app. The controversial software is a tool that helps resellers track and price tickets across multiple markets, often handling a large number of tickets. The app has previously been accused of facilitating ticket collection, which Wall also denies, saying the platform does not purchase tickets. He says competitors like StubHub and Vivid Seats use similar software.
Live Nation will “remove TradeDesk's concert ticket management functionality from the market” to help improve its reputation.
The recent FTC lawsuit is not the first legal battle the ticketing giant has faced. Last year, the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Live Nation, which suggested dissolving the company for its alleged monopolistic practices.
Amid these lawsuits, fans continued to complain about not being able to get tickets and having to pay much more than face value to resellers.
Founded in 1976, Ticketmaster has been the industry's largest ticket provider since 1995, with around 80% of live concerts sold through the site. Lately it has also taken a growing share of the resale market. According to the FTC, consumers spent more than $82.6 billion purchasing tickets from the Beverly Hills-based company between 2019 and 2024.
The vendor also promises to roll out new AI-powered tools to help verify identities, remove unauthorized users, and monitor potentially fraudulent purchases.
