{"id":10360,"date":"2026-04-20T17:49:36","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T17:49:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/live-nation-ticketmaster-pay-9-9m-to-settle-ticket-fee-accusations\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T17:49:36","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T17:49:36","slug":"live-nation-ticketmaster-pay-9-9m-to-settle-ticket-fee-accusations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/live-nation-ticketmaster-pay-9-9m-to-settle-ticket-fee-accusations\/","title":{"rendered":"Live Nation & Ticketmaster Pay $9.9M To Settle Ticket Fee Accusations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

\n\tLive Nation will pay $9.9 million to settle accusations that Ticketmaster charged \u201cdeceptive fees\u201d to Washington D.C. residents and misled them about ticket prices \u2014 resolving a dispute that\u2019s separate from the company\u2019s blockbuster antitrust case.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a statement Monday (April 20), DC Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb<\/strong> says the concert giant advertised \u201cdeceptively low ticket prices,\u201d then foisted mandatory fees on fans at checkout before using \u201cpressure tactics\u201d like a countdown clock to get them to pay up.<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\t\t\t\t\tRelated\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n\t\u201cFor at least a decade, Live Nation and Ticketmaster boosted profits by charging predatory, hidden fees,\u201d Schwalb says. \u201cWith this settlement, we\u2019re putting millions of dollars back into the pockets of D.C. fans and ensuring that the price fans see when they first start shopping for tickets is the price they actually pay.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe settlement will resolve claims of illegal \u201cdrip pricing\u201d \u2014 a practice where sites list deceptively low prices, only to tack on fees and surcharges as consumers near checkout. State and federal regulators have recently imposed new rules requiring sites like Ticketmaster to instead show \u201call-in\u201d prices showing the full, final purchase total for tickets.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cLive Nation hid the true price of tickets,\u201d Schwalb writes Monday. \u201cThis deceptive bait-and-switch tactic deprived consumers of complete information about ticket pricing up front and limited their ability to make informed purchasing decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tA spokesperson for Live Nation did not immediately return a request for comment on Monday.<\/p>\n

\n\tThough it raises similar gripes, Monday\u2019s settlement is unrelated to the huge antitrust case against Live Nation, in which Schwalb and dozens of other state attorneys general won a verdict that the industry behemoth illegally monopolized the live music business. Live Nation already owes millions from that verdict, and a judge is currently weighing what other penalties to impose, including a potential sale of Ticketmaster.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn addition to hiding the fees until checkout, Schwalb says, Live Nation failed to properly disclose the \u201cnature and purpose\u201d of them. It also used misleading pressure tactics to push fans to accept them, he says, including a countdown timer and pop-up notifications that \u201ccreated the impression that tickets were scarce and would soon be sold out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIf users were inactive for more than one minute, Live Nation\u2019s ticketing platform displayed a message saying \u2018Tickets are selling fast. Get yours now before they\u2019re gone,\u2019\u201d Schwalb says. \u201cThis message appeared regardless of actual demand for the event.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tUnder Monday\u2019s settlement, Live Nation agreed to pay $9.9 million, of which $8.9 will be used to refund fans for fees they paid. It also agreed to change its practices, including advertising only all-in prices, sharing information about why the fees are imposed, and changing its timer and inactivity notice: \u201cNow, the notice more accurately explains how the ticket hold process works.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLive Nation isn\u2019t the only platform to face a crackdown over all-in pricing. Earlier this month, StubHub agreed to pay $10 million to resolve accusations from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that the ticket platform had briefly intentionally ignored the new federal rules.<\/p>\n


\"Billboard
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Live Nation will pay $9.9 million to settle accusations that Ticketmaster charged \u201cdeceptive fees\u201d to Washington D.C. residents and misled them about ticket prices \u2014 resolving a dispute […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10361,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7781,3570,717,344,1206,510,448,1453,1345],"class_list":["post-10360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-9-9m","tag-accusations","tag-fee","tag-live","tag-nation","tag-pay","tag-settle","tag-ticket","tag-ticketmaster"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10360\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}