Ticketmaster BOTS Act Case Proceeds, FTC Lawsuit Moves Forward

A federal judge’s ruling that the Federal Trade Commission’s BOTS Act prosecution can proceed could open the door for other ticketing platforms to face similar action.

In denying Ticketmaster’s motion to dismiss, U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong of the Central District of California read the language of the BOTS Act broadly.

Ticketmaster contended the law was written to protect platforms from nefarious actions, not to impose liability upon them, but Frimpong said nothing in the statutory language bars a platform from facing prosection.

Among the allegations — which Live Nation and Ticketmaster dispute — is that the platform “turns a blind eye” to resellers who exceed purchasing limits. The FTC says ignoring those violations is tantamount to a violation of the BOTS Act language that prohibits “circumvention.” Since the law does not define circumvention, Frimpong used the word’s ordinary meaning to interpret the statute and found that such an allegation, if true, meets that definition.

Ticketmaster also claimed that as a passive market, they can’t be considered a seller under the law — the company said only individuals can be sellers — but Frimpong rejected that argument as well, since physical ownership of property is not always required to sell same.

Ticketmaster also argued that the suit filed by the FTC and seven state attorneys-general did not identify specific transactions that violated the law, but Frimpong said at this stage, that’s immaterial, saying that the allegation that Ticketmaster had knowledge of brokers exceeding limits and using multiple accounts was sufficient to plausibly argue that Live Nation and Ticketmaster were aware of the activity, had the means to stop it and chose not to.

The farther reaching implication here is that the door is now open for even more prosecutions by the FTC for BOTS Act violations under Frimpong’s reading — which will almost certainly face appellate scrutiny somewhere down the line. BOTS Act prosecutions have been few and far between since becoming law, a circumstance bemoaned by politicians across the spectrum, and what prosecutions there have been have been relatively small potatoes and certainly made against actors that don’t have the headline-making possibilities of Ticketmaster and its major competitors on the secondary market.

Whether this opens a new front for the FTC remains to be seen — and will almost certainly not be fully engaged until the appellate process plays out.

Appeals Court Says Using Copyrighted Material To Train AI Is Not Fair Use

The Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that large-language model training is not fair use of copyrighted materials, the latest twist in an ongoing legal battle that will all but certainly be ultimately decided by the Supreme Court.

The case in question concerns a now-defunct start-up that used material from Westlaw — which is owned by Thomson Reuters — to train a rival model. Amicus briefs supporting Thomson Reuters were filed by, among others, the RIAA.

The decision in the case was marked as precedential, meaning it must be followed by the Third Circuit’s district courts in Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and the Virgin Islands. Due to Delaware’s inclusion and the state’s position as the nominal headquarters to numerous corporations, the circuit is particularly influential on matters of commercial law.

LN’s Top Lawyer Steps Back

Michael Rowles, who has been general counsel for Live Nation for two decades, is moving into a reduced role that comes to a close at the end of 2029.

Taking his place is Da-Wai Hu, who has previously served as general counsel for Chewy.

“On September 25, 2026, the Company announced that it would be hiring Da-Wai Hu to serve as the Company’s Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary beginning November 2, 2026,” the company wrote in an 8-K filing with the SEC..

A later filing clarified that Rowles will now serve as a “senior legal advisor” during the transition.

_Originally reported by [Pollstar](https://news.pollstar.com/2026/10/02/the-biz-what-judges-ticketmaster-bots-act-ruling-could-mean-latest-on-ai-fair-use-lns-top-lawyer-steps-back/)._