Ticketmaster has agreed to pay $10 million USD in fines over a scandal that saw the retailer accused of hacking longtime rival, Warner Music Group-owned concert discovery service, Songkick.
After settling a $110 million civil suit with the company back in 2018, Ticketmaster will fork out the additional fees to avoid criminal charges including conspiracy to commit hacking and wire fraud.
In its defence, Ticketmaster said that the hacking incident involved two employees — one of which was a former Songkick employee — who are both no longer employed at the company, and haven't been since 2017.
The pair apparently hatched a scheme to hack Songkick's client database in order to identify possible targets to dissuade from using the service after Songkick's popularity cut into Ticketmaster's profits.
Acting U.S. Attorney Seth DuCharme said the retailer "repeatedly — and illegally — accessed a competitor's computers without authorization using stolen passwords to unlawfully collect potential business intelligence."
"Their actions violated our corporate policies and were inconsistent with our values," Ticketmaster's statement said. "We are pleased that this matter is now resolved."
After settling a $110 million civil suit with the company back in 2018, Ticketmaster will fork out the additional fees to avoid criminal charges including conspiracy to commit hacking and wire fraud.
In its defence, Ticketmaster said that the hacking incident involved two employees — one of which was a former Songkick employee — who are both no longer employed at the company, and haven't been since 2017.
The pair apparently hatched a scheme to hack Songkick's client database in order to identify possible targets to dissuade from using the service after Songkick's popularity cut into Ticketmaster's profits.
Acting U.S. Attorney Seth DuCharme said the retailer "repeatedly — and illegally — accessed a competitor's computers without authorization using stolen passwords to unlawfully collect potential business intelligence."
"Their actions violated our corporate policies and were inconsistent with our values," Ticketmaster's statement said. "We are pleased that this matter is now resolved."