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A Ticketmaster executive wrote an internal email to Live Nation leadership. In that email, he described the company's policy on brokers who steal tickets from fans.

His exact words: "turn a blind eye as a matter of policy."

That email is now filed with a federal court. It is Exhibit A in the Federal Trade Commission's 84-page lawsuit against Live Nation and Ticketmaster, filed September 18, 2025 in the Central District of California. Seven state attorneys general joined it.

The email confirms what every concert fan has felt since 2018. Ticketmaster is not fighting the bots. Ticketmaster is the bots' business partner.

Here is what the FTC filing proves, using Ticketmaster's own documents.

Step 1. An artist announces a tour and sets a limit. "4 tickets per fan."

Step 2. Ticket brokers open thousands of fake Ticketmaster accounts using proxy IP addresses. The FTC's investigation found that just 5 brokers controlled 6,345 Ticketmaster accounts and bought 246,407 tickets to 2,594 events.

Step 3. Ticketmaster's own security systems flag the fraud. Then internal policy says: do nothing. That is the "turn a blind eye" email.

Step 4. Ticketmaster gives brokers a proprietary software tool called TradeDesk. Yes. Ticketmaster built brokers a software product to help them aggregate and resell the tickets they just stole from you.

Step 5. The broker relists the ticket on Ticketmaster's resale marketplace at 3x, 5x, sometimes 10x face value.

Step 6. Ticketmaster charges the buyer a service fee, a facility fee, an order processing fee. Then charges the broker a resale fee on the same ticket. The FTC calls this "triple-dipping."

The numbers on this scam are in the complaint.

From 2019 to 2024, consumers spent $82.6 billion on Ticketmaster tickets. Of that, $16.4 billion was mandatory hidden fees. Those fees averaged 24% to 44% of the total ticket price. From resale alone, Ticketmaster kept $3.7 billion in fees during those 5 years.

The FTC filing states this was not a display accident. Internal Ticketmaster documents show executives ran years of testing on how to hide fees at checkout. Internal analysis found that revenue went up when the price display was, in Ticketmaster's own written words, "less transparent."

"Less transparent" is now filed in a US federal court, in Ticketmaster's own document, under oath.

The fees never appeared on the ticket listing. They appeared at the final checkout page after 6 to 8 minutes of clicking, when you had already committed emotionally to that Taylor Swift ticket for your daughter's birthday. The design was intentional. Court filings prove it.

Then there is the Michael Rapino problem.

Rapino is CEO of Live Nation. In separate 2024 Justice Department antitrust filings, prosecutors quoted his emails threatening business retaliation against a private equity firm because the firm invested in a competitor Ticketmaster wanted to crush. The DOJ used the phrase "monopoly power." They are asking a federal judge to break Live Nation and Ticketmaster apart.

Two federal lawsuits are now running at the same time against the same company. FTC on fee deception and bot collusion. DOJ on monopoly.

Ticketmaster's public response is that they support fee transparency. Their own internal documents, now in federal court, prove the opposite.

The reason your Taylor Swift, Beyonce, Bad Bunny, Oasis, and Kendrick tickets cost 4x face value is not the artist. It is not the venue. It is not "market forces."

It is a company that wrote in its own email that it turns a blind eye to fraud as a matter of policy, and built software for the people committing the fraud.

Protection tonight, before your next ticket purchase:

- Ticketmaster has a new "all-in pricing" toggle after the FTC filing. It is off by default. Turn it on: Account Settings > Preferences > All-in Pricing. This is the only setting that shows real total price on the search page.

- Never buy a resale ticket on Ticketmaster's own resale platform. That is where the broker profit and the triple-dip happens. Use SeatGeek, Vivid Seats, or StubHub instead. Their fees are often lower and they are not the same company that sold the original tickets.

- For any concert or sports event, check the artist's or team's official site first. Many artists including Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, and Pearl Jam now sell "verified fan" tickets directly, bypassing Ticketmaster resale entirely.

-I f you paid a resale ticket that was above the artist's stated limit, file a complaint at reportfrauddotftcdotgov. The FTC is actively building the restitution case right now and consumer complaints become part of the record.

- Illinois, Colorado, Florida, Nebraska, Tennessee, Utah, and Virginia residents can also file with their state AG. Those seven states signed the lawsuit and are entitled to state-level penalties on top of federal.

The FTC filing gives every American a legal path to a refund on any Ticketmaster resale purchase made between 2019 and 2024. It has not been reported that way in most coverage. It is in the complaint. Google "FTC v Live Nation Ticketmaster complaint."

Ticketmaster did not lose control of its platform to bots. Ticketmaster built a marketplace where bots are the customer, brokers are the partner, and the fan is the product.

The email that proves it is 6 pages into a federal complaint.

Send this to one person who paid over face value for a concert ticket this year.

Checks if an email address exists without sending any email. Written in Rust with an HTTP backend and CLI support.

https://github.com/reacherhq/check-if-email-exists https://x.com/tom_doerr/status/2083448492920340827