Former Ticketmaster boss sentenced for illegally accessing rival company’s servers
A former Ticketmaster executive, Stephen Mead, has been sentenced for illegally accessing a rival company’s computer servers to steal sensitive information. Mead, a British national, stole data from CrowdSurge, a smaller ticketing company he had previously worked for, between 2013 and 2015. His actions directly contributed to the collapse of CrowdSurge, according to the Department of Justice in New York.
Mead pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit computer intrusions against CrowdSurge in June and has now been ordered to pay $67,970 as a forfeiture and sentenced to a year’s supervised release. Court papers filed in the US state that Ticketmaster executives had asked Mead to share “competitive intelligence” about the company.
Ticketmaster, the world’s biggest entertainment ticketing platform, did not respond to the BBC’s request for comment on the matter. Another former Ticketmaster executive, Zeeshan Zaidi, also pleaded guilty to fraud charges related to the case in 2019 and is yet to be sentenced.
Mead was ordered to pay back a sum he received when he left CrowdSurge, as well as the pay rise he subsequently received at Ticketmaster. The Foreign Office confirmed they are providing consular assistance to Mead, who is currently in the US and in contact with local authorities.
CrowdSurge, a rival ticketing company to Ticketmaster, had an estimated value of more than $100 million with headquarters in London and a US office in New York. Mead, who was CrowdSurge’s senior vice president for global operations and general manager for North America, repeatedly breached a separation agreement he signed when he left the company in 2012.
According to court documents, Mead shared sensitive information with Ticketmaster executives, accessed competitive data about CrowdSurge’s clients and technology, and even gave a presentation using unauthorized access to CrowdSurge’s website. His actions led to monetary losses for CrowdSurge and contributed to its downfall in a highly competitive business environment.
Mead’s employment with Ticketmaster was terminated in 2017, and he left the US in 2019, returning to the UK. He was arrested in Italy earlier this year and extradited to the US to face charges related to the case.
In 2015, CrowdSurge’s parent company filed a civil lawsuit against Ticketmaster, alleging anti-competitive practices in the artist pre-sale ticketing services market. Ticketmaster settled the legal dispute in 2018, paying $110 million to the owners of SongKick and buying SongKick’s ticketing technology.
Ticketmaster entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the Department of Justice in New York in 2020, pleading guilty to fraud charges and agreeing to pay a fine of $10 million. The company completed the terms of the deferred prosecution in July 2024.
