Ticketmaster

Is Ticketmaster safe?

The tickets are; the company's record is not. A ticket bought or resold inside the Ticketmaster app is genuine, and its SafeTix barcodes make the most common scam, a fake ticket bought from a stranger, much easier to spot. Behind the app the picture is weak. Ticketmaster lost customer data in 2018 and again in 2024, regulators in the UK fined or pressed it over data and pricing, the FTC sued it in 2025, and in April 2026 a US jury found against Live Nation and Ticketmaster in the states' antitrust case. We score it 39/100.

The 2024 data breach

On 20 May 2024 Live Nation found unauthorised activity in a third-party cloud database holding mostly Ticketmaster data, and a week later a criminal group offered that data for sale. The hackers claimed 560 million records, a figure Ticketmaster never confirmed. BleepingComputer reported that the data was taken from a Snowflake cloud account between 2 April and 18 May 2024, using stolen credentials that had no multi-factor authenticationTwo-factor authenticationSigning in with a second proof of identity on top of your password, such as a code from an app, a security key or a passkey.More in the glossary.

Ticketmaster says the database held limited data on some buyers of events in the US, Canada and Mexico: email, phone number, encrypted card information and other details. It says Ticketmaster accounts were not affected and offered affected customers 12 months of free identity monitoring.

It was not the first time. In 2018 a third-party chatbot on Ticketmaster UK's payment page was compromised and leaked card details. The UK's Information Commissioner's Office fined Ticketmaster UK £1.25 million in November 2020, saying it had not assessed the chatbot's risks or secured the page. Ticketmaster appealed, then dropped the appeal in May 2022, so the fine stands. The ICO's estimate was that 9.4 million customers across Europe may have been affected.

What the app does with your data

Apple's privacy label lists purchases and contact info as used to track you across other companies' apps and websites. Linked to your identity are purchase history, payment info, coarse location, address, email and phone number, search history, user ID, usage data and a category Apple calls "sensitive info". Most of these, including sensitive info, are marked for third-party advertising as well as Ticketmaster's own marketing.

The privacy policy, updated in July 2026, gives US users the right to opt out of the "sale or sharing" of their data and says Ticketmaster may buy age, gender and interest data from marketing partners. Sellers on the resale market have their identity checked by a payment provider. If you only want tickets, the opt-out link in the policy and an app without location access cut most of the tracking.

Fees, resale and the lawsuits

Most complaints about Ticketmaster are about price, not safety, and the regulators agree. The UK's Competition and Markets Authority opened an investigation after the 2024 Oasis sale. In September 2025 Ticketmaster agreed to warn fans 24 hours ahead when tiered pricing is used, to show price ranges in the queue and to stop misleading labels such as "platinum" seats that offered nothing extra.

In the US the FTC and seven states sued Live Nation and Ticketmaster on 18 September 2025. They allege that advertised prices left out mandatory fees of up to 44% of the ticket price, and that Ticketmaster knew brokers broke its ticket limits with thousands of accounts. They also allege it profited when those brokers resold the tickets on its own platform. These are allegations, which the companies dispute.

The larger case is antitrust. The Justice Department and dozens of states sued in May 2024. In March 2026, early in the trial, the Justice Department settled for structural changes and a $280 million fund for states; the settlement awaits court approval. The states that kept going won: on 15 April 2026 a jury found for them on all remaining claims, and Live Nation has set aside $450 million while it challenges the verdict.

How to avoid ticket scams

UK Action Fraud recorded 9,826 reports of ticket fraud and losses of about £9.8 million in 2024, up 47% on 2023. Most of those losses happen outside official sites, often after an offer on social media.

1. Buy from Ticketmaster, the venue or the artist's official partner, or a resale market with buyer protection.
2. Accept resold Ticketmaster tickets only by transfer in the app. A screenshot or PDF of a SafeTix ticket will not scan.
3. Pay by credit card, never by bank transfer, to a stranger.
4. Turn on location only when you need it at the venue, and use the "Do Not Sell or Share" link if you are in the US.
5. If you were in the 2024 breach, watch for phishing that quotes your past orders.

How we scored it

The regulatory record (20) is the weakest factor: a jury verdict, a federal settlement, a UK GDPRGDPRThe EU's General Data Protection Regulation, which sets rules on how organisations collect and use personal data and allows large fines.More in the glossary fine and an open FTC case within six years. Security (35) reflects two breaches of payment-related data in 2018 and 2024. Scams and harmful content (55) is the best factor, because SafeTix and in-app transfers protect buyers who stay on the platform. Booking.com, another app where stolen data feeds phishing, scores 47.