- - FTC sues reseller for faking accounts to grab Taylor Swift Eras tickets

Bryan West, USA TODAY NETWORKAugust 19, 2025 at 3:11 AM

Federal regulators are suing a ticket broker they say used fake accounts to snag Eras Tour tickets and sell them at a markup.

Hot on the heels of Taylor Swift's "The Life of a Showgirl" announcement, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission filed a complaint in Maryland federal court on Aug. 18. The paperwork accused ticket reseller Key Investment Group of using thousands of fake or purchased Ticketmaster accounts to snag tickets to events and resell them at higher rates.

The FTC said for one of the Eras concerts, the Baltimore-based company deployed 49 different accounts to seize 273 tickets, evading the six-ticket purchase limit.

Key Investment Group operates resale sites such as TotalTickets.com.

Ticketmaster faced intense criticism after its botched 2022 sale of tickets to Swift’s much-hyped Eras Tour, when billions of fans, bots and resellers overwhelmed the site. The company was forced to cancel a planned general public sale.

Taylor Swift speaks out after Ticketmaster cancels her tour's general ticket sale: 'It pisses me off'

"There are a multitude of reasons why people had such a hard time trying to get tickets and I'm trying to figure out how this situation can be improved moving forward," Swift posted to her Instagram story. "I'm not going to make excuses for anyone because we asked them, multiple times, if they could handle this kind of demand and we were assured they could. It's truly amazing that 2.4 million people got tickets, but it really pisses me off that a lot of them feel like they went through several bear attacks to get them."

FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson said in a statement that the lawsuit against Key Investment Group puts ticket sellers on notice that the agency will target those who "circumvent ticketing platforms' limits on ticket sales." The action is part of a broader crackdown President Donald Trump announced in March aimed at curbing exploitative reselling practices that raise costs for fans.

Taylor Swift announced her 12th studio album, "The Life of a Showgirl," will drop Oct. 3.

Taylor Swift 'New Heights' highlights: Eras Tour inspired new album, no extra tracks, more

Key Investment Group sued the FTC in July to block the investigation, saying its purchases did not involve automated software or bots and did not violate the Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act. The company said in its lawsuit that the FTC has made it clear "they intend to use the BOTS Act to shut down the entire secondary-ticket market."

On Monday, the FTC accused Key Investment Group and three of its executives of violating the BOTS Act as well as the FTC Act, which prohibits unfair and deceptive business practices. Meanwhile, Ticketmaster and its parent, Live Nation Entertainment, are fighting a separate U.S. antitrust lawsuit alleging the company monopolized markets across the live concert industry.

Contributing: Reuters.

Don't miss any Taylor Swift news; sign up for the free, weekly newsletter This Swift Beat.

Follow Taylor Swift reporter Bryan West on Instagram, TikTok and X as @BryanWestTV.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: FTC sues reseller for faking accounts to grab Taylor Swift Eras tickets

Original Article on Source

Source: “AOL Entertainment”