After years of complaints, some customers who were overcharged for an event by Ticketmaster might finally get some of their money back. On April 20, D.C. Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb announced that Live Nation, Ticketmaster’s parent company, will pay $9.9 million in a settlement to resolve his district’s allegations that it “misled customers about ticket prices, charged deceptive fees, and used illegal pressure tactics to get fans to buy tickets for a decade.”
A total of $8.9 million is expected to be returned to D.C.-based Live Nation customers in the coming months.
This settlement is the result of a months-long consumer protection investigation conducted by Schwalb’s Office of the Attorney General (OAG). It’s separate from a massive federal antitrust lawsuit which, on April 16, reached the verdict that Live Nation has been running a harmful monopoly over large venues across the U.S. for years.
It’s still unclear what penalties Live Nation might face in the wake of that federal verdict. But in the meantime, customers in D.C. may be some of the first people to get money back from Ticketmaster as Live Nation pays out its settlement with the D.C. OAG.
Inside Ticketmaster’s dark patterns
According to the D.C. OAG, its investigation into Live Nation revealed three major red flags that showed the company had misled customers in violation of consumer protection laws. Each one represents a different kind of dark pattern, a genre of UX designed to manipulate consumer decisions online.
First, per an OAG press release, Live Nation advertised deceptively low ticket prices that did not include mandatory fees until the very last second: “From 2015 until May 2025, Live Nation hid the true price of tickets, revealing the full price only on the checkout page where the amount of costly mandatory fees were disclosed for the first time, after consumers had already invested time and effort in the purchase,” the press release reads. It adds that this “deceptive bait-and-switch tactic” limited consumers’ ability to make informed purchasing decisions.
Second, the OAG notes, Live Nation failed to adequately disclose critical information about the nature and purpose of its fees and the company’s role in setting them. And, third, the OAG says that Live Nation employed certain “pressure tactics” to sell tickets. These included a countdown clock, pop-up notifications, and an inactivity notice that “created the impression that tickets were scarce and would soon be sold out.”
The OAG says that, in 2025, Live Nation made changes to its fee disclosures and the inactivity notices as a response to the OAG’s investigation and the FTC’s Rule on Unfair and Deceptive Fees. As a part of this new settlement, Live Nation has agreed to maintain those changes and pay a hefty sum.
What to know about the Live Nation settlement (and who is eligible to file a claim)
Under the terms of the OAG’s settlement, Live Nation will continue to display to consumers the full price of a ticket (including fees), maintain an update to its platform that shares additional information about the fees it charges, and share additional information with consumers about its ticket purchasing countdown clock. In addition, the company will refund up to $8.9 million back to Live Nation customers.
According to the OAG, the details of a claims process will be announced in the coming months. Restitution will go to D.C. residents who bought tickets via Ticketmaster and paid fees.
“For at least a decade, Live Nation and Ticketmaster boosted profits by charging predatory, hidden fees — taking advantage of DC residents buying tickets for their favorite artist or team and pricing others out entirely,” Schwalb said in the press release. “With this settlement, we’re putting millions of dollars back into the pockets of DC fans and ensuring that the price fans see when they first start shopping for tickets is the price they actually pay.”