FTC Sues Ticket Reseller

The FTC is suing a ticket reseller for evading Taylor Swift's Eras Tour ticket limits. Attorney with TexasDefenseFund.com joins us to discuss how this could impact the future of ticket sales. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The TC is suing a ticket resaler for evading Taylor
Swift's tour ticket Lenix.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
This is West Michigan's morning news.

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Steve Kelly and Brett mckita were joined by attorney with
Texas Defense Fund dot Com Jeremy Rosenthal on the liveline. Jeremy,
thanks for doing this today. So what was your first
ticketed concert? Do you remember what was the first show
you bought a ticket to see?

Speaker 3 (00:26):
Okay, I'm lame, like severely lame, like I'm bad. Okay,
because I'm I'm fifty one. I shouldn't say these things
on the radio.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Can't wait to hear what this is now.

Speaker 3 (00:36):
You set this up set well that it's not that
it's a bad show. It was the Dave Matthews band.
I was twenty something, so that it's that I was
twenty something. Yeah, but yeah, it was a Dave Matthews
band and they didn't even do ants marching. And it
was in Texas Stadium where the Cowboys used to play

(00:57):
in July, which was an absolute oven. But that was
part of the magic.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
This lawsuit is part of a crackdown from the Trump administration.
Then I guess I didn't know, so talk to us
a little bit about what sort of standards are in
place for these third party ticket people to just.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
Scoop up a bunch of stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
And then the kids that want to see Taylor Swift
are the ones that end up well, their parents paying
big well.

Speaker 3 (01:23):
And it's not just Taylor Swift, it's it's really any
concert that you go to, and in some instances it's
probably to athletics events and things like that, although that's
a little different. But this is a whole industry that
is just a cruising for a bruisin. You've got ticket

(01:44):
Master and Live Nation who owns them, who are getting
sued currently for a monopoly. Right, you guys control the
market anyway. You guys control the concert on the front
end anyway, billionaires like Taylor Swift are even having a
hard time managing you and dealing with you. And then
on this end, what's happened here is there's a group

(02:06):
called the Key Investment Group and they own something called
Epic Tickets. They own three or four little subsidiaries and
they've been gaming it. Congress passed what was called the
Bots Law, perfect name for a bill bots, which prevents
you from buying more than like four tickets or five
tickets or six tickets, whatever, whatever the sale, whatever the

(02:28):
venue or the concert limits you at you can't buy
more than These guys were buying fifteen hundred tickets at
a time, setting up fake emails, setting up credit cards
under fake people's names, having these little farms that are
texting back when when ticket Master asks for verification. So
they're really under rounding it and they're getting popped now

(02:50):
by the Federal Trade Commission too.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
And I guess what can you do about it? How
do you know?

Speaker 1 (02:56):
You know, if you book a hotel room these days,
you may not know it, but you could be going
through a third party, and you know what I mean,
you can't tell. How do you know when you're buying
a ticket from the band anymore?

Speaker 3 (03:07):
When you show up and you uh, and they're like yeah, no,
it's it's really really hard to detect. And it's this
is this has not been a new fight necessarily, uh,
but it's the best. And this is Look, you've got
the Federal Trade Commission. That is that that that is

(03:29):
consumer advocates can to a consumer protection Most of your
state attorneys general are going to be the office that
you complain to. That' said that that that are looking
after consumer affairs, that are that are going after unfair
trade practices. UH So the Department of Justice uh has
some has some ability to deal with monopolies, but you've

(03:53):
got to have that. That's what in some ways, that's
what these big federal government and state government legal entities
are four is to take on some of these really
big entities like Ticketmaster, to try to make it to where, yeah,
you pay seventeen bucks and you get to go watch
a show. I mean, isn't that what's supposed to.

Speaker 1 (04:15):
Happen, right, and then one hundred dollars T shirt. But
that's another we are another conversation with Texas Defense Fund
dot com. Jeremy Rosenthal, Attorney, Thank you for your time
this morning.

Speaker 3 (04:25):
You got it. Have a great morning, and enjoy the shows.