FTC sues ticket brokers over Taylor Swift Eras Tour resales

Ticketmaster FTC lawsuit overview:

• Who: The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is suing a group of ticket brokers.
• Why: The FTC claims the brokers illegally bought Taylor Swift Eras Tour and other tickets from Ticketmaster in bulk and resold them at inflated prices.
• Where: The lawsuit was filed in Maryland federal court.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is suing a group of ticket brokers it says used fake accounts and spoofed IP addresses to purchase hundreds of thousands of Taylor Swift Eras Tour tickets and resold them at a markup.

The federal agency filed its complaint against a group of ticket brokers on Aug. 18 in a Maryland federal court, alleging violations of the Federal Trade Commission Act and the Better Online Ticket Sales Act. 

The lawsuit claims the brokers bypassed Ticketmaster’s purchasing limits and verification processes to buy tickets to Swift’s Eras Tour and other popular events, including Bruce Springsteen concerts, reselling them at significantly higher prices.

The defendants include Key Investment Group, which operates as Epic Seats, TotalTickets.com and Totally Tix, and its executives Yair D. Rozmaryn, Elan N. Rozmaryn and Taylor Kurth. Other defendants are Front Rose Tix LLC and WLK Investments LLC.

The FTC alleges the defendants used fake names, addresses and phone numbers, as well as fictitious Ticketmaster accounts and thousands of credit card numbers, to skirt Ticketmaster’s security measures.

The FTC Tickermaster lawsuit claims that between March 24, 2023, and Aug. 20, 2023, the defendants purchased 2,280 tickets to 38 Taylor Swift concerts, paying $744,970.29 and reselling them for $1,961,980.65, netting $1,217,010.36 in revenue.

FTC seeks penalties for ‘unscrupulous middlemen’ in Taylor Swift ticket lawsuit

The FTC claims the defendants used 49 different Ticketmaster accounts to buy 273 tickets to Swift’s March 25, 2023, show at Allegiant Stadium, despite a six-ticket limit, reselling them at a markup and earning nearly $120,000.

For a Bruce Springsteen concert at MetLife Stadium on Sept. 1, 2023, the defendants allegedly used 277 accounts to purchase 1,530 tickets, exceeding the four-ticket limit and netting a little more than $20,000 in revenue.

The lawsuit says the defendants concealed their IP addresses using rotating IP proxy services and created fictitious Ticketmaster accounts, using thousands of credit card numbers to bypass ticket limits.

The FTC seeks relief against the defendants in the form of civil penalties for violating the FTC Act and the Better Online Ticket Sales Act.

Ticketmaster itself has faced controversy with an antitrust lawsuit in 2024 claiming its merger with parent company Live Nation created an unlawful monopoly. Last year, the companies were hit with a lawsuit over a massive data breach that impacted over 500 million people.

What do you think of the allegations made in this Taylor Swift ticket lawsuit? Let us know in the comments.

The FTC is represented in-house by Simon Barth, Molly Rucky and P. Connell McNulty.

The Taylor Swift ticket lawsuit is Federal Trade Commission v. Key Investment Group LLC et al., Case No. 1:25-cv-02716, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland.

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