• The FTC has filed a lawsuit against Key Investment Group for bypassing ticket purchase limits for events, including Taylor Swift's Eras Tour.
• Key Investment Group is accused of using over 379,776 accounts to acquire tickets, reselling them at inflated prices.
• The company allegedly made over $1.2 million by reselling tickets intended for fans of Taylor Swift's concerts.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has initiated a lawsuit against the Maryland-based ticket reseller Key Investment Group, accusing the company of illegally circumventing ticket purchase limits to acquire and resell tickets for high-demand events, notably Taylor Swift's Eras Tour. The lawsuit, filed in federal court, alleges that the company used thousands of fictitious Ticketmaster accounts to buy tickets above the stipulated limits, prompting significant consumer frustration following a chaotic ticket sale process that led to Ticketmaster's cancellation of a public sale in 2022, according to Reuters, HuffPost, Channel News Asia, and CBS News.

Key Investment Group allegedly purchased approximately 379,776 tickets for various concerts, spending nearly $57 million, and resold them for an estimated $64 million. One specific case cited in the FTC's complaint details how the company used 49 accounts to buy 273 tickets for a single Swift concert in March 2023, substantially exceeding the six-ticket limit per event and generating profits of over $1.2 million from Swift concert ticket resales. In total, the company is accused of selling over 2,280 tickets from Swift’s Eras Tour, according to Reuters, HuffPost, Channel News Asia, and CBS News.

In response to the allegations, Key Investment Group stated that it plans to defend itself vigorously, claiming that the FTC's actions misconstrue the Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act, originally intended to combat malicious software, not legitimate resale operations. The company emphasizes that it utilizes human employees rather than automated bots for ticket purchases. However, the FTC maintains that Key Investment Group violated the BOTS Act by deliberately bypassing security measures set by Ticketmaster, which are designed to enforce ticket purchase limits and maintain integrity within their ticketing processes, according to Reuters, HuffPost, Channel News Asia, and CBS News.