NITO indie agents, managers take ticket scalper complaint to Feds

The National Independent Talent Organization (NITO) has filed a formal ticket scalper complaint with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) alleging widespread violations of the Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act.

NITO Agents, Managers take ticket scalper complaint to Feds

Management companies Red Light and Q Prime and agencies High Road, Arrival and Ground Control are among the 42+ music companies signing the ticket scalper complaint to the FTC. NITO member companies collectively represent thousands of artists performing tens of thousands of shows yearly.

The FTC complaint stems from an investigation of exhibitors at July’s World Ticket Conference (WTC) in Nashville organized by the National Association of Ticket Brokers (NATB). There, NITO observed a sold-out exhibition hall filled with vendors selling and marketing products designed to bypass security measures for ticket purchases, in direct violation of the BOTS Act. 

In one example described in the complaint, multiple virtual credit card services exhibiting at WTC offered instantaneous credit card creation with multiple billing addresses that can allow scalpers to circumvent limits on sales set by artists, promoters, and primary ticket companies like Ticketmaster and AXS.

Other tools available to resellers at the convention included sophisticated browser extensions and proxy services designed to bypass security measures.

These practices may violate the BOTS Act’s prohibition on circumventing security measures used to enforce ticket purchasing limits. “The presence of these vendors at a conference specifically for ticket brokers strongly suggests that a substantial portion of attendees either currently use these services or are likely to do so in the near future,” according to NITO.

The NITO FTC complaint include actionable recommendations for rights holders and the Federal Trade Commission to combat these practices, including increased enforcement, legislative updates, and enhanced cooperation between stakeholders in the ticketing industry.

Ticket Resellers Respond

Gary Adler, the Executive Director of convention of conference organizer NATB, sought to shift blame away from ticket resellers. “Artists, venues, and primary ticketers abuse technology every day to create fake scarcity and deceive consumers into paying higher prices when really, they are secretly holding back tickets to slowly drip more on sale over time to cheat and fool the fan,” Adler told Dave Brooks of Billboard. “This is most likely an illegal deceptive marketing and advertising practice, driven by artists, venues, and primary ticketing companies, that the FTC should immediately investigate.”

Bruce Houghton

image via StockCake