Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti joined the Federal Trade Commission and a bipartisan coalition of six other state attorneys general in a lawsuit against Ticketmaster and its parent entity, Live Nation Entertainment, over their alleged ticket scalping scheme that has driven up prices.
The lawsuit, filed in the Central District of California, alleges that Ticketmaster knew that numerous ticket brokers circumvented ticket purchasing limits on the Ticketmaster website, buying thousands of tickets above the set limit and boxing out ordinary fans.
“President Donald Trump made it clear in his March Executive Order that the federal government must protect Americans from being ripped off when they buy tickets to live events,” FTC Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson said in a statement. “American live entertainment is the best in the world and should be accessible to all of us. It should not cost an arm and a leg to take the family to a baseball game or attend your favorite musician’s show. The Trump-Vance FTC is working hard to ensure that fans have a shot at buying fair-priced tickets, and today’s lawsuit is a monumental step in that direction.”
Ticketmaster controls about 80% of major concert venues' pricing for concerts, according to the complaint. It estimated that from 2019 to 2024, consumers bought more than $82 billion worth of tickets from Ticketmaster.
These brokers used methods like creating hundreds of bogus Ticketmaster accounts and using software to log into many accounts at once while using proxy IP addresses to hide their location.
The lawsuit claims that Ticketmaster ignored these problems and in some cases, aided these brokers and then re-sold the tickets at highly inflated prices on Ticketmaster’s resale platform—a violation of the federal Better Online Ticket Sales Act, which was passed into law to stop to ticket scalping by bots.
Pr25 48 Complaint by scott.mcclallen
Attorneys General from Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Nebraska, Tennessee, and Utah joined the FTC's lawsuit.
The complaint further alleges that Ticketmaster violated the Tennessee Consumer Protection Act by deceptively representing to consumers that ticket limits existed and were enforced when such was not the case for these brokers.
“Tennessee wouldn’t be Tennessee without world-class live music from the mountains to the Mississippi. When consumers line up for a show, they should never have to compete with armies of scalpers scooping up hundreds of tickets at a time,” said Attorney General Skrmetti. “We’re fighting to level the playing field and get tickets back into the hands of real fans at fair prices.”
Tennessee wouldn’t be Tennessee without world-class live music from the mountains to the Mississippi. When consumers line up for a show, they should never have to compete with armies of scalpers scooping up hundreds of tickets at a time.https://t.co/222XCLcqA5 pic.twitter.com/rmvj1xDRcK
— TN Attorney General (@AGTennessee) September 18, 2025
The lawsuit seeks a permanent injunction stopping ticket scalping, civil penalties, and ther relief to compensate harmed consumers.
Attorneys General from Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Nebraska, Tennessee, Utah, and Virginia joined the FTC's lawsuit.
Live Nation hasn't responded to a request for comment. Live Nation Entertainment is incorporated in Delaware but it's headquarters is in Delaware.
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