Entertainment
Thousands of tickets to Taylor Swift and other events illegally resold by broker, FTC alleges
A Maryland ticket broker is accused of illegally purchasing and reselling hundreds of thousands of tickets for profit, including thousands to Taylor Swift’s highly sought Eras Tour.
The Federal Trade Commission is suing Key Investment Group, saying the company made millions of dollars in profit from reselling the tickets at inflated prices.
The lawsuit, filed Monday, Aug. 18, in U.S. District Court in Maryland, accuses the company and its affiliates of bypassing Ticketmaster’s security measures designed to block resellers from violating ticket-purchase limits.
Key Investment Group also did business under the names Epic Seats, TotalTickets.com LLC and Totally Tix LLC, according to the complaint.
The FTC alleges that, in a one year period, the group purchased at least 379,776 tickets from Ticketmaster at a cost of nearly $57 million. The company then allegedly resold those tickets on secondary marketplaces for about $64 million.
In a statement, Key Investment Group said it will “vigorously defend itself against this clear example of regulatory overreach.” It claims the FTC “misleadingly characterizes KIG’s use of standard internet browsers,” and said the government’s case “threatens to dismantle the secondary ticket market for live events.”
Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour tickets
Between March and August of 2023, Key Investment Group allegedly purchased 10 or more tickets to 38 Taylor Swift concerts, totaling 2,280 tickets, according to the complaint. The FTC says the company made more than $1.2 million in profit reselling those tickets.
For just one Taylor Swift show, the defendants allegedly used 49 different accounts to buy 273 tickets. The Eras Tour had a six-ticket purchase limit per customer, per event.
Among other events the FTC alleges were targeted was a 2023 Bruce Springsteen concert in New Jersey. Despite a four-ticket limit, the defendants allegedly purchased and resold more than 1,500 tickets.
How the alleged scheme worked
According to the FTC, the group used thousands of Ticketmaster accounts, both fictitious and third-party accounts it had purchased, to bypass security measures and purchase the tickets.
The company is also accused of using thousands of credit card numbers, including virtual card numbers, spoofing IP addresses to hide the identity of the ticket purchaser, and using SIM technology to collect the incoming verification codes.
In doing so, the FTC said the brokers violated the FTC Act and the Better Online Ticket Sales Act, which prohibits people from “circumventing a security measure, access control system, or other technological control or measure on an internet website or online service that is used by the ticket issuer to enforce posted event ticket limits or to maintain the integrity of posted online ticket purchasing order rules.”
Gremlins is a well-known black horror comedy franchise that has released two installments, but for the third, there is much anticipation among fans about when it will come.
Now, Chris Columbus, the screenwriter of the original movie, has shared an update on the threequel, as the last film was released in 1990.
“There’s a bunch of scripts for Gremlins,” he teased in an interview with GamesRadar+. “I mean, nothing has been approved. We’re working on something, but we’re always [working on something]. Gremlins is a never-ending writing assignment.”
Besides the update, Chris also weighed in on his initial stance against the making of sequels.
“Back in the early 80s, when we had finished Gremlins, there was the opportunity to do Gremlins 2, but I was of a mind that once I’ve said it, I’ve said it, there’s no reason to do a sequel,” he recalled.
This mindset, he said, led him to consider making other movies instead of Gremlins 2.
“So Steven and I could have worked on Gremlins 2, but I said, ‘No, I’ve done that. I’m going to move on.’ And I moved on to Goonies and Young Sherlock Holmes. So we still worked together,” the director noted.
However, since then, Chris’s views on the sequels definitely evolved as he had made Home Alone two and the first two films in the Harry Potter franchise.
Meanwhile, his latest-directed film, The Thursday Murder Club, is streaming on Netflix.
Hunter Biden is reportedly plotting fresh attacks on George Clooney after he distanced himself from the former president of the United States.
According to Radar Online, the 64-year-old American actor and filmmaker is worried about the secrets which might be revealed after the 55-year-old son of former United States president Joe Biden spoke against him in an interview and seems poised to say more.
For the unversed, Clooney wrote an op-ed article, I Love Joe Biden. But We Need a New Nominee, stating that Biden should withdraw himself from the 2024 presidential race.
The Wolfs star claimed because of his ‘cognitive decline,’ Joe could not stay the same, which clearly showed in his debate with current president Donald Trump.
An insider told the same outlet that “Hunter considers George a misinformed interloper who kicked Joe while he was down and sabotaged the Democratic Party.”
“He feels the world would be a better place if Joe was in office, and he’s saying George wrecked everything,” the source noted.
“Now he’s planning on delving deep into George’s history and shining a light on anything that looks remotely suspicious – from past relationships to business practices and even his marriage to Amal [Clooney],” the insider reported.
“Everyone has skeletons in the closet, especially a Playboy turned political bigmouth! George is nervous about what Hunter could spill, and he should be. If any story that’s remotely unsavory gets out, he’ll have a hot mess on his hands,” the source stated.
New York — YouTube TV says it’s reached a “short-term extension” in its contract dispute with Fox, meaning subscribers of the Google-owned streamer won’t see immediate disruptions of Fox channels on the platform.
The current carriage agreement between YouTube TV and Fox originally faced a Wednesday afternoon deadline – with YouTube previously warning that networks like Fox Sports, Business and News would become unavailable on its streaming platform if the two sides didn’t reach a new deal by 5 p.m. ET.
That would have left YouTube TV customers without Week 1 of some college football games and other broadcast programming from Fox. But shortly after the clock hit 5 p.m. ET on Wednesday, YouTube said it was able to “prevent disruption” as it continues to work toward a new agreement.
“We are committed to advocating on behalf of our subscribers as we work toward a fair deal and will keep you updated on our progress,” YouTube said in a brief update announcing the extension.
A spokesperson for Fox had no addition comment, but confirmed that the broadcast giant had agreed to the short-term extension. It wasn’t immediately clear how long the extension would be.
In a statement earlier Wednesday, Fox said it was “disappointed that Google continually exploits its outsized influence by proposing terms that are out of step with the marketplace.” Fox also directed subscribers to a site called keepfox.com for more information and to call on YouTube to come to an agreement.
In addition to Fox Sports, Business and News, keepfox.com notes that YouTube TV may no longer carry FS1 and the Big Ten Network (which is majority-owned by Fox) if a deal isn’t reached.
Meanwhile, in blog post earlier this week, YouTube said Fox was “asking for payments that are far higher than what partners with comparable content offerings receive.” The company added that it hoped to reach a deal that’s “fair for both sides” without “passing on additional costs to our subscribers.”
If Fox content becomes unavailable on YouTube TV “for an extended period of time,” YouTube also noted it would provide members with a $10 credit. YouTube TV’s base plan – which currently boasts access to over 100 live channels – costs $82.99 a month.
Brendan Carr, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, also chimed in on the dispute leading up to Wednesday’s deadline – while appearing to target Google particularly. He called on the tech company to “get a deal done” in a post on social media.
“Google removing Fox channels from YouTube TV would be a terrible outcome,” Carr wrote in a Tuesday post on X. “Millions of Americans are relying on YouTube to resolve this dispute so they can keep watching the news and sports they want-including this week’s Big Game: Texas Ohio State.”
From sports events to awards shows, live programming that was once reserved for broadcast has increasingly made its way into the streaming world over the years – as more and more consumers ditch traditional cable or satellite TV subscriptions for content they can get online. But renewing carriage agreements can also mean tense contract negotiations – at times resulting in service disruptions.
YouTube TV has been down this road before: In 2021, YouTube TV subscribers briefly lost access to all Disney content on the platform, including networks like ESPN and local ABC stations, after a contract breakdown between the two companies. That outage lasted less than two days, with the companies eventually reaching an agreement.
Beyond deals with YouTube TV and others, Fox last week launched its own streaming platform, “Fox One,” which has a starting price of $19.99 a month.
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