A Maryland-based ticket broker is being sued by federal authorities for allegedly buying up over 2,000 Taylor Swift tickets as part of a major reselling scam.
Key Investment Group and its affiliated companies have been accused of, among other things, buying 10 or more tickets to each of the 38 concerts on The Eras Tour in order to resell the tickets at significantly higher prices, generating millions in revenue. The singer’s fans – known as “Swifties” – were limited to a certain number of tickets.
In a lawsuit filed Monday, the Federal Trade Commission claims that in just over one year, KIG bought over 379,000 tickets to various non-sporting events – worth around $57 million – and resold them at a “significant markup” for $64 million.
The suit alleges that KIG’s operation used a variety of tactics to bypass security measures implemented by Ticketmaster to block resellers from violating ticket purchasing limits.
Such tactics included the use of virtual and traditional credit card numbers, along with “spoofed” IP addresses, fake accounts created by real people, and numerous SIM cards used to receive verification text messages to numbers controlled by the group.
The FTC highlights that from March through August 2023, the group purchased 2,280 Taylor Swift concert tickets, paying a total of $744,970.29. The tickets were resold for $1,961,980.65, resulting in a profit of $1,217,010.36.
For Swift’s March 25 concert at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, the company allegedly used 49 different accounts to purchase 273 tickets, dramatically exceeding the Eras Tour’s 2023 six-ticket purchase limit per event.
By doing this, KIG allegedly violated both the FTC Act and the Better Online Ticket Sales Acts.
The acts make it illegal for any person to “circumvent a security measure, access control system, or other technological control or measure on an Internet website or online service that is used by the ticket issuer to enforce posted event ticket limits or to maintain the integrity of posted online ticket purchasing order rules.”
“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 in a statement Monday.
“Today’s action puts brokers on notice that the Trump-Vance FTC will police operations that unlawfully circumvent ticket sellers’ purchase limits, ensuring that consumers have an opportunity to buy tickets at fair prices.”
In a statement responding to the announcement, KIG said it would “vigorously defend itself” against a “clear example of regulatory overreach.”
The company accused the FTC of “twisting the intent of the Better Online Ticket Sales Act… into a weapon against legitimate businesses and consumers.”
“Under the FTC's interpretation, anyone who purchases more than four tickets or uses more than one account could be deemed in violation of federal law,” the statement said. “That outcome is not only illogical, it is absurd.
“Even more troubling, 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.”
