US company to pay $10 million in compensation for hacking competitor's systems
Ticketmaster hacked the systems of CrowdSurge over two years in order to gain a competitive edge
Ami Rojkes Dombe
| 04/01/2021
Photo: Bigstock
After being charged with illegally and repeatedly accessing a competitor's computer systems between the years 2013 and 2015, Ticketmaster has agreed to pay a fine of $10 million.
The subsidiary of Live Nation, a ticket sales and distribution company in California, used the stolen information to gain an advantage over CrowdSurge, which merged with Songkick in 2015 and was acquired by the Warner Music Group in 2017. Ticketmaster hired a former employee of Crowdsurge to hack the competitor.
"Ticketmaster employees repeatedly – and illegally – accessed a competitor's computers without authorization using stolen passwords to unlawfully collect business intelligence," said attorney Seth DuCharme. "Further, Ticketmaster's employees brazenly held a division-wide 'summit' at which the stolen passwords were used to access the victim company's computers, as if that were an appropriate business tactic."
Ticketmaster hacked the systems of CrowdSurge over two years in order to gain a competitive edge
Photo: Bigstock
After being charged with illegally and repeatedly accessing a competitor's computer systems between the years 2013 and 2015, Ticketmaster has agreed to pay a fine of $10 million.
The subsidiary of Live Nation, a ticket sales and distribution company in California, used the stolen information to gain an advantage over CrowdSurge, which merged with Songkick in 2015 and was acquired by the Warner Music Group in 2017. Ticketmaster hired a former employee of Crowdsurge to hack the competitor.
"Ticketmaster employees repeatedly – and illegally – accessed a competitor's computers without authorization using stolen passwords to unlawfully collect business intelligence," said attorney Seth DuCharme. "Further, Ticketmaster's employees brazenly held a division-wide 'summit' at which the stolen passwords were used to access the victim company's computers, as if that were an appropriate business tactic."
