A top US regulator on Thursday sued Ticketmaster and its parent company Live Nation, alleging the ticketing giant conspired with brokers to inflate concert ticket prices and deceive consumers with hidden fees.

The Federal Trade Commission, along with seven states, filed the lawsuit in a California federal court, accusing the companies of allowing ticket brokers to harvest millions of tickets in violation of purchase limits, and then resell them at marked-up prices.

Ticketmaster has been the object of anger and frustration from both artists and spectators for decades, with concertgoers complaining about overpriced tickets, opaque pricing schemes, and glitches that saw sales for Taylor Swift’s historic Eras Tour, among others, marred by breakdowns.

Most recently, the reunion tour of UK ro

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