Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - The Federal Trade Commission has filed a lawsuit against Key Investment Group, a ticket reseller that buys thousands of tickets to the most popular concerts and sells them at a markup. The FTC says the group made more than $1.2 million from reselling tickets for Taylor Swift's Eras Tour.
Key Investment Group is accused of stooping quite low to pull off their schemes, according to legal analyst Jeremy Rosenthal. "The allegations are that they're creating a whole bunch of fake credit cards or listing them to dead people," Rosenthal tells WBEN. They're also accused of using bot programs to get ahead of real people waiting for tickets.
Congress has tried to fight back, passing the BOTS (Better Online Ticket Sales) Act which prevents individuals from "tricking" ticket sellers like Ticketmaster into selling them 10-15 tickets for one show. Key Investment Group was still able to buy thousands of tickets at a time, though.
Since scalpers are targeting music's biggest names, is Paul McCartney's concert in Buffalo a potential target?
"Any time you're looking at a sold-out venue you've got these problems," Rosenthal says. One look at the seating map for McCartney's November 14th concert shows KeyBank Center will be close to sold-out.
Sir Paul and Taylor Swift may have the sway to battle groups like Key Investment by themselves, but it's not the case for all artists.
"That's why the Federal Trade Commission has to come in...because they're really the only ones that are strong enough, that can take it to some of these actors."
