Live events are pricey to begin with, but face value is just the start. Add hidden fees, inflated resale prices and dynamic pricing, and your night out just got a whole lot more expensive.

There are supposed to be guardrails to prevent surprises at checkout, and regulators have tried to address these issues.

On May 12, a new Federal Trade Commission rule went into effect barring bait-and-switch pricing and other tactics that obscure total prices for live-event ticket costs. It requires businesses to advertise all mandatory fees or charges in the total price.

But the rule is far from foolproof. On Sept. 18, the FTC sued Live Nation , accusing it and Ticketmaster of coordinating with brokers to allow them to use thousands of proxy bot accounts to purchase large ticket blocks, which were

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