Live Nation filed a 37-page answer to the FTC’s BOTS Act lawsuit, calling it “misguided” and accusing the agency of trying to “flip the Act on its head” by using a law designed to protect ticket issuers against scalpers to instead penalize the ticket issuer itself. The companies argue they have spent more than $1 billion since 2010 fighting bot activity, have blocked more than 13 billion bot requests, and are responsible for “nearly every major technological advancement” in anti-bot protection in the industry. On a trial date, the two sides are far apart: plaintiffs want April 2028, Live Nation wants October 2028. The FTC’s simultaneous lawsuit against broker REPS (see below) makes it harder for Live Nation to argue the BOTS Act wasn’t meant to reach ticketing platforms at all.

The DOJ, acting on an FTC referral, filed a civil complaint against San Diego-based ticket broker REPS & Company and three of its executives, alleging the firm used thousands of fake accounts, virtual credit cards, proxy servers, and offshore buyers to circumvent purchase limits at more than 83,500 events since 2022, amassing 18.5 million tickets and generating at least $120.8 million in profit. For a single Beyoncé show in Kansas City, REPS allegedly used 1,300 accounts to buy 7,624 tickets and cleared $833,000 in profit on that date alone. The complaint also alleges Ticketmaster was aware of REPS’s conduct and turned a “blind eye” to it. REPS’s president said the company “agrees that the use of bots, false identities, and made-up accounts to unfairly scoop up large numbers of tickets should be stopped;” while not admitting the allegations.

The Ticket Policy Forum, representing SeatGeek, Vivid Seats, Gametime, and TickPick, filed a federal lawsuit in US District Court for the District of Columbia seeking to block the RESALE Act before its January 1, 2027 effective date. The law caps resale prices at 10% above face value, limits marketplace service fees to another 10%, requires upfront disclosure of original purchase prices, and bans speculative ticket sales. The platforms argue the law violates the dormant Commerce Clause (since most transactions involve buyers and sellers outside DC), the Due Process Clause, the First Amendment, and the Home Rule Act, which limits DC’s ability to regulate commerce beyond its borders. DC Councilmember Charles Allen, who sponsored the legislation, said he was “not surprised” by the move. The same playbook is likely coming in Vermont, Illinois, and Massachusetts when their laws hit.

Raye announced that 1.8 million people registered for presale access to her 5,000-cap October 23 Royal Albert Hall concert, with “hundreds of thousands” of those registrations determined to be AI-generated fake accounts from scalpers. Rather than risk a compromised on-sale, her team conducted a manual review of the list to identify real fans before distributing access codes. The on-sale still went badly: fans who received codes reported massive queues, confusing queue positioning, and StubHub listings appearing within minutes for a show where the artist says resale is prohibited.

President Trump signed the American Music Tourism Act into law, making it the first federal legislation dedicated to music tourism. As a reminder, the law directs the Commerce Department’s International Trade Administration to develop and implement a national strategy for attracting international visitors to US music venues, events, and destinations, and requires a report to Congress within two years on the strategy’s progress. The bill was backed by NIVA, the Recording Academy, and the Nashville Convention and Visitors Corporation, among others.

AEG Presents has acquired Paris-based Auguri Productions, the artist development and production company founded in 1997 by Charles Bensmaine, deepening its French operation less than a month after formalizing its partnership with Belgian-Dutch promoter Greenhouse Talent. Bensmaine will remain with the company, and Auguri’s roster will gain access to AEG’s international touring network. AEG is now operating across the UK, Norway, France, Germany, and Benelux in Europe, with Japan through Creativeman, and has been investing heavily in Chile and Brazil across Latin America.

The Canadian Live Music Association released its national climate risk study, “Sound Check: Climate Risk and Resilience in Canada’s Live Music Sector,” finding that 83% of live music operators say climate change is already affecting their events, 70% have experienced at least one high-impact weather day per year resulting in partial or full cancellation, and 87% expect conditions to worsen over the next five years. Only 15% have weather insurance. The report arrives after a summer that saw wildfire smoke cancel Ontario festivals, extreme heat disrupt events across the country, and flooding hit multiple outdoor venues. Alongside the study, the CLMA released its free Climate Contingency Toolkit to help operators build emergency protocols and planning frameworks.

Nashville-based venue operator Marathon Live has announced a strategic content partnership with AEG Presents across its six-venue network, which includes Marathon Music Works in Nashville, The Truman in Kansas City, The Hawthorn in St. Louis, The Hall in Little Rock, The Signal in Chattanooga, and FIVE in Jacksonville. The partnership formalizes a booking relationship that has been building since Mark Dinerstein and JPB Partners acquired Marathon Live in July 2025, and gives AEG a consistent programming foothold in multiple mid-sized markets it doesn’t currently operate venues in. Marathon Music Works marks its 15th anniversary this fall as one of the last independently owned mid-sized venues in Nashville.

Egyptian promoter Venture Lifestyle has been deliberately positioning Egypt’s most iconic landmarks as destinations for international live music, using Starlight Festival at the Pyramids of Giza (part of EXIT Festival’s world tour) and Shakira’s upcoming November 28 concert at Al Haram as anchors of a music tourism strategy that prioritizes foreign audiences as a driver of domestic economic growth. Starlight drew roughly 20,000 people per day across four days, with attendees traveling from 114 countries. The goal, per Venture Lifestyle, is to make concerts a reason to visit Egypt rather than an afterthought, extending hotel stays, generating tourism spending, and building a calendar that competes with European festival destinations.

Furnace Fest returned for its first edition under new ownership by Peachtree Entertainment and promptly went viral for all the wrong reasons. Merch included mugs bearing AI-generated artwork and the misspelled “Bringham Alabama” that were later revealed to be repurposed stock from Peachtree’s Rock the Country with a Furnace Fest sticker slapped over the original print, at $50 each. (Peachtree clarified the mugs were sold by a third-party vendor, not the festival itself.) VIP ticket holders who paid for “chef-prepared dinners” were served meals that fans compared extensively to Fyre Festival’s infamous cheese sandwich on social media. The festival’s original organizers were not involved in this year’s edition.

Last Week's Results:
When it comes to indie ticketing platforms actually breaking Ticketmaster’s stranglehold, 55% of BOH readers think that they’ll carve out niche markets but won’t touch stadium/arena touring.

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