{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.blackburn.senate.gov/2025/10/general/blackburn-luj-n-demand-answers-from-ticketmaster-on-bait-and-switch-scheme-to-drive-up-ticket-prices", "Blackburn, Luj\u00e1n Demand Answers from Ticketmaster on Bait-and-Switch Scheme to Drive Up Ticket Prices", "2025-10-10", "2025", "2025-10", "Republican", "Senate", "TN", "Marsha Blackburn", "B001243", "www.blackburn.senate.gov", "blackburn", "https://www.blackburn.senate.gov/news/cc8c80c1-d564-4bbb-93a4-f1d772346ae0", "scraper", "NASHVILLE, Tenn. \u2013 U.S. Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Ben Ray Luj\u00e1n (D-N.M.) sent a letter to Live Nation President and Chief Financial Officer Joe Berchtold demanding answers on Ticketmaster\u2019s alleged \u201cbait-and-switch\u201d scheme to drive up ticket prices. The letter follows the Federal Trade Commission\u2019s lawsuit against Live Nation and Ticketmaster for allegedly engaging in illegal ticket resale tactics and deceiving artists and consumers about price and ticket limits.\n\nIn 2016, Senator Blackburn\u2019s Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act was signed into law, which prohibited scalpers from using software to purchase high volumes of tickets. Since then, Ticketmaster has turned a blind eye to bad actors violating this law.\n\nTicketmaster Allegedly Engaged in a Bait-and-Switch Scheme to Drive Up Ticket Prices\n\n\u201cWe write to express our grave concern over recent allegations regarding the harm that Ticketmaster engaged in a \u201cbait-and-switch\u201d scheme to drive up ticket prices. When you testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2023, you told Congress \u2018We believe that the artist-fan connection is the foundation of the live entertainment industry, the source of nearly all commercial value, and the number one thing that public policy should protect.\u2019 Yet, according to a lawsuit filed by the Federal Trade Commission and seven states attorneys general, Ticketmaster coordinated with ticket brokers allowing them to obtain millions of dollars of tickets which they then resold on the secondary market.\u201d\n\nTicketmaster Has Turned a Blind Eye to Bad Actors Violating the BOTS Act, Costing Fans Billions\n\n\u201cTicketmaster has allegedly turned a blind eye to bad actors violating the Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act for years, costing fans billions of dollars in hard earned money. Instead of working with trusted cybersecurity professionals and Congress to protect consumers and stop ticket scalping, Ticketmaster went so far as to provide technical support to help \u2018brokers\u2019 exceed their purchasing limits to buy up tickets. This decision allowed Ticketmaster to collect fees at three different points in the purchasing process. Ticketmaster collects fees when scalpers buy tickets on the primary market, they collect more fees when those tickets are then sold on its own secondary market, and they charge even more fees when fans eventually purchase the resold tickets.\u201d\n\nTicketmaster Is More Concerned About Profit Than Protecting Consumers\n\n\u201cThis conduct was not isolated, nor was meaningful action taken to bring this misconduct to a halt. When employees flagged the abuse occurring on Ticketmaster\u2019s platform, their concerns were allegedly ignored. Ticketmaster was not worried about the consumer. In fact, reporting indicates that Ticketmaster was more concerned when brokers complained about high-volume purchases that were blocked. A Ticketmaster executive even wrote that they \u2018turn a blind eye as a matter of policy\u2019 to the violation of their own purchasing limits. LiveNation went so far as to \u2018offer technological support to brokers through a software platform called TradeDesk, which enables brokers to track and aggregate tickets purchased from multiple Ticketmaster accounts into a single interface for simpler resale management.\u2019 These actions stem from purely financial motives \u2014if Ticketmaster had enforced its ticket purchasing limits, the company stood to lose up to $220 million in resale revenue per year.\u201d\n\nTicketmaster Claims to Fight Bots and Scalpers While Actively Colluding with Bad Actors\n\n\u201cWhen you appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2023 following the Taylor Swift Ticketmaster meltdown, you repeatedly assured the committee that Ticketmaster does everything in its power to stop bots and scalpers. When pressed on the issue of cybersecurity protections, you seemed dumbfounded and argued that LiveNation spent over a billion dollars investing in site protections against bots. It is astounding that you would make such a claim while actively colluding with scalpers and bad actors to extort the American public. America\u2019s world-leading live entertainment industry is the center of our culture, and consumers deserve the opportunity to see their favorite band or cheer on their hometown sports team without competing with bots and fraudsters. Instead of casting blame on any entity other than Ticketmaster, we urge you to be forthright with Congress and the American public about the extent of your complicity in allowing bots to buy up and hoard massive amounts of tickets.\u201d\n\nClick here to read the full letter.\n\nRELATED\n\nBlackburn, Luj\u00e1n Introduce Update To BOTS Act To Help FTC Combat Bots In Online Ticket Marketplace", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:32:54Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.blackburn.senate.gov/2025/10/general/blackburn-luj-n-demand-answers-from-ticketmaster-on-bait-and-switch-scheme-to-drive-up-ticket-prices"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4059010427445173, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}