FTC sues Key Investment Group for Swift Eras Tour scalping

The Federal Trade Commission filed a federal lawsuit on Monday against Maryland-based Key Investment Group and related entities, accusing them of buying hundreds of thousands of concert tickets through illegal means and reselling them at inflated prices, including a substantial portion tied to Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour. The agency says the operation purchased nearly 380,000 tickets from Ticketmaster for about $57 million and resold them on secondary platforms for roughly $64 million, generating millions in profit and compromising fans’ ability to buy tickets at face value.

According to the complaint, the defendants used a sophisticated and coordinated scheme designed to defeat Ticketmaster’s anti-scalping measures. The operation allegedly employed thousands of fictitious Ticketmaster accounts, proxy or spoofed IP addresses, virtual credit cards, and SIM banks to bypass access controls and purchase limits. The network included several affiliated companies operating under shared ownership and leadership, allowing the group to pursue what the FTC characterizes as a unified ticket-broking operation across multiple brands.

The toll of the scheme is laid out through specific episodes....