The U.S. Federal Trade Commission sued Key Investment Group LLC in Maryland federal court on Monday, accusing the Baltimore-based ticket broker of illegally buying and reselling hundreds of thousands of tickets to live events. The company operates resale platforms including TotalTickets.com, Epic Seats and Totally Tix. According to the complaint, Key Investment Group used thousands of fictitious or purchased Ticketmaster accounts, virtual credit cards and spoofed IP addresses to skirt purchase caps, a practice the agency says violates both the Better Online Ticket Sales Act and the FTC Act. From June 2022 to December 2023, the firm allegedly acquired at least 379,776 tickets to more than 3,200 events for nearly $57 million and resold them for roughly $64 million. Taylor Swift’s blockbuster Eras Tour figures prominently in the case. The FTC says the broker bought 2,280 Swift tickets between March and August 2023, netting more than $1.2 million in profit. For a single show at Las Vegas’s Allegiant Stadium, the defendants allegedly used 49 accounts to purchase 273 seats, far exceeding Ticketmaster’s six-ticket limit. The suit also cites similar tactics for a Bruce Springsteen concert at MetLife Stadium, where more than 1,500 tickets were purchased despite a four-ticket cap. Regulators are seeking an injunction to halt the practices, as well as civil penalties and restitution for consumers. Key Investment Group said it will "vigorously defend" itself, calling the action a "clear example of regulatory overreach" and denying any use of automated bots. The lawsuit is the first major enforcement action under a ticket-resale crackdown announced by President Donald Trump in March. While Ticketmaster and parent Live Nation are not named as defendants, the case adds to mounting scrutiny of the live-events ticketing market following the high-profile breakdown of Swift’s 2022 presale and ongoing antitrust challenges facing the industry.