Ticketmaster has filed a $10m (£7.5m/€8.5m) lawsuit against brokers that have been reportedly been using bots to secure tickets for high-demand shows such as Broadway hit Hamilton.
The Live Nation subsidiary filed the suit in California against Prestige Entertainment, Renaissance Ventures and two individuals for allegedly buying masses of tickets to various shows using technology that skirts the rules of the company’s efforts to prevent scalping.
Ticketmaster accuses the brokers of using bot software to swipe tickets as soon as they went on sale, meaning true fans missed out on face-value primary tickets, and are instead forced to look on the secondary market where prices are often inflated.
The ticketing giant claims that the brokers are in violation of terms of use, copyright infringement, fraud, breach of contract and violations of state and federal computer abuse laws.
The lawsuit requests that the defendants are barred from using bots on any Ticketmaster platform.
Earlier this year, Prestige and Renaissance agreed to fund $3.35m of a $4.2m settlement made with New York state attorney general Eric Schneiderman and abstain from using bots to purchase tickets.
Ticketmaster’s complaint states: “However, Ticketmaster has already uncovered evidence that suggests Renaissance has already breached the agreement by continuing to utilise bots to purchase tickets offered by Ticketmaster.”
The Live Nation subsidiary added that using bots is leading its customers to question the firm’s ability to create a fair playing field when buying tickets.
Image: Steve Jurvetson
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