FTC alleges Maryland reseller marked up tickets, including for Taylor Swift concerts

The Federal Trade Commission on Monday sued a Pikesville-based ticket reseller, alleging it illegally bought and marked up nearly 400,000 event tickets, including to concerts on Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour.

The FTC alleges that Key Investment Group, the company’s principals and related businesses used thousands of Ticketmaster accounts and credit card numbers, fake and proxy IP addresses, and other methods to buy at least 379,776 tickets in about a year.

It alleges that they bought $57 million worth of tickets in just over a year and sold “a portion” of them for $64 million, in violation of the Better Online Ticket Sales Act, or BOTS Act, which seeks to prevent resellers from using bots to circumvent ticket platforms’ security measures.

The trade regulator sued in Maryland U.S. District Court, naming as defendants Key Investment Group, TotalTickets.com, Totally Tix, Front Rose Tix, WLK Investments, Key Investment Group CEO Yair Rozmaryn, CFO Elan Rozmaryn and chief strategy officer Taylor Kurth.

“Defendants’ actions have injured consumers, who otherwise may have been able to purchase those tickets in the first instance from Ticketmaster at a lower price,” the lawsuit states.

“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,” FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson stated in a news release.

Ferguson noted an executive order by President Donald Trump that seeks to ban price gouging in the entertainment industry.

Ticketmaster did not respond to a request for comment.

Bezalel Stern, a partner at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips in Washington, D.C., is representing Key Investment Group, the Rozmaryns and Kurth. Stern did not answer a phone call on Tuesday.

Among the allegations is that from March to August 2023, the defendants purchased 2,280 tickets to 38 Taylor Swift concerts. They paid $744,970 and resold the tickets for $1,961,9801.

A month ago, Key Investment Group preemptively sued Ferguson and other members of the FTC in an attempt to challenge the BOTS Act as applied. The lawsuit seeks declaratory judgment and injunctive relief, arguing that the BOTS Act is unconstitutionally vague as applied to the company.

“In order for their business model to make sense, Plaintiffs — and the rest of the legitimate secondary-ticket market — use multiple accounts to secure tickets,” the complaint states.

“Many other companies, businesses, and individuals also use multiple accounts to secure tickets. Defendants’ position is that any individual or company who uses more than one account to purchase tickets from a primary ticket seller, such as Ticketmaster, violates the BOTS Act.”

The complaint states that the ticket resellers do not use bots and do not violate Ticketmaster’s rules. It says Ticketmaster does not “enforce posted event ticket purchasing limits” or “maintain the integrity of posted online ticket purchasing order rules.”

“A violation of the BOTS Act requires the use of bots,” it adds. “Plaintiffs do not use bots.”