Ticketmaster Asks Federal Judge to Dismiss FTC Lawsuit
This story raises questions about governance, accountability, and American values.
Mainstream coverage tends to treat the FTC’s Ticketmaster lawsuit as a morality play: big, bad corporate power finally gets its comeuppance. But it skips an important question: is the government actually using the law Congress wrote, or stretching it to fit a political appetite for headlines? If the BOTS Act doesn’t clearly apply, the answer is not “get them anyway.
New Republican Times Editorial Board
Ticketmaster and its parent company Live Nation reportedly asked a federal judge Tuesday (Jan. 6) to dismiss a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) lawsuit accusing them of illegal coordination with brokers.
The company said in court papers that the law the FTC accused them of violating, the Better Online Ticket Sales Act (BOTS Act), does not apply to ticketing [...]The post Ticketmaster Asks Federal Judge to Dismiss FTC Lawsuit appeared first on PYMNTS.com.
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New Republican Times Editorial Board
Mainstream coverage tends to treat the FTC’s Ticketmaster lawsuit as a morality play: big, bad corporate power finally gets its comeuppance. But it skips an important question: is the government actually using the law Congress wrote, or stretching it to fit a political appetite for headlines?
If the BOTS Act doesn’t clearly apply, the answer is not “get them anyway.” Rule of law matters most when a target is unpopular. The better conservative critique is simpler: ticket buyers deserve a fair market, but regulators should not invent authority after the fact or punish firms for being dominant rather than unlawful.
What consumers need is transparent enforcement, fair competition, and a crackdown on real fraud. If scalpers are gaming systems, enforce the statute as written and hold brokers accountable too. Public trust collapses when agencies act like legislators, not referees.
Commentary written with AI assistance by the New Republican Times Editorial Board.