FTC sues ticket broker for hoarding Taylor Swift tickets, screwing fans yet again
The FTC is suing a major ticketing resale conglomerate for creating thousands of fake Ticketmaster accounts to bypass a six-ticket purchase limit – and then reselling the tickets at “a significant mark-up” – swindling music fans out of millions.
Image by Brian Friedman | Shutterstock
Follow us
The FTC is suing a major ticketing resale conglomerate for creating thousands of fake Ticketmaster accounts to bypass a six-ticket purchase limit – and then reselling the tickets at “a significant mark-up” – swindling music fans out of millions.
- The FTC is suing secondary ticket broker Key Investment Group for unlawfully bypassing Ticketmaster's ticket purchasing limits, injuring consumers with unfair practices.
- The broker and its affiliates allegedly bought 380,000 tickets worth $57 million, including for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, and resold them at steep markups.
- The company is accused of violating federal laws by using fake accounts, spoofed IPs, and SIM boxes to evade Ticketmaster’s security controls.
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) says the ticket brokers were able to unlawfully purchase hundreds of thousands of tickets for many popular events, including Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, exceeding the ticket purchasing limits implemented by Ticketmaster to prevent unfair buying practices.
The consumer protection agency identified the ticket broker as the Maryland-based Key Investment Group (KIG) and its affiliate businesses, Epic Seats, TotalTickets.com LLC, and Totally Tix LLC.”
The alleged violationswere said to have taken place between November 1, 2022, and December 30, 2023.
Acting alone or in concert with others, Key Investment Group has purchased and then subsequently advertised, marketed, distributed, or sold event tickets to consumers throughout the United States, the FTC complaint states.
“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.
“Concerts and other live events are already expensive. Fans don’t need to be squeezed any further by profiteering middlemen,” Ferguson said in a statement earlier this week.
The complaint alleges that in one case, these middlemen bought 273 tickets for a single concert, in violation of Ticketmaster’s six-ticket purchase limit per event, and then re-sold the tickets at exorbitant prices. https://t.co/S5ju9LyfEP
undefined Andrew Ferguson (@AFergusonFTC) August 18, 2025
Brokers circumvented multiple security controls
According to the 21-page complaint, the brokers used a variety of tactics to bypass Ticketmaster’s security measures, which monitor transactions for verifiable accounts, multi-factor authentication, and if the purchaser uses a unique IP address and credit card number.
The illegal workarounds purportedly included :
- Pre-purchasing thousands of fictitious and third-party Ticketmaster accounts.
- Utilizing thousands of virtual and traditional credit card numbers.
- Hiding their identity by using proxy or spoofed IP addresses.
- Using SIM boxes to facilitate the receipt of verification codes sent to the phone numbers of the fake accounts.
The illicit scheme led to the purchase of “at least 379,776 tickets in just over a year from Ticketmaster at a cost of nearly $57 million,” the FTC said, adding that a portion of those tickets were “resold on secondary marketplaces for approximately $64 million.”
Key Investment Group, in a statement released on this week, said it would "vigorously defend itself" against the FTC lawsuit.
“The FTC misleadingly characterizes KIG's use of standard internet browsers to purchase tickets as equivalent to deploying unlawful software. This portrayal is both deceptive and malicious,” it said.
Taylor Swift fans feel the brunt - yet again
The consumer watchdog noted that for just one Taylor Swift concert, the defendants allegedly used 49 different accounts to purchase 273 tickets, reselling the tickets to Swifties at a significant markup.
In 2023, Ticketmaster was forced to cancel thousands of ticket sales for Taylor Swift's 2023 US Eras Tour due to massive numbers of bots buying up online tickets during pre-sale and leaving fans in the dust.
Following 3.5 billion requests, the website repeatedly crashed, leaving Ticketmaster with “an insufficient remaining ticket inventory to meet that demand," setting off a firestorm among Swift fans and backlash from the artist herself.
While Ticketmaster has since tightened its security controls, Key Investment Group is now accused of violating the FTC Act and the Better Online Ticket Sales Act by circumventing Ticketmaster’s protections.
"The FTC will police operations that unlawfully circumvent ticket sellers’ purchase limits, ensuring that consumers have an opportunity to buy tickets at fair prices,” Ferguson said.
KIG's CEO, Yair D. Rozmaryn; Chief Financial Officer, Elan N. Rozmaryn; and Chief Strategic Officer, Taylor Kurth, were also named in the lawsuit.
