Merch Traffic, a Live Nation subsidiary, has filed a trademark lawsuit against a group of anonymous online sellers accused of hawking counterfeit merchandise for artists including Nirvana, Bruno Mars and The Notorious B.I.G. The complaint, lodged on 5 August in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, matters because it opens a new front in the music industry's growing anti-counterfeiting campaign, targeting e-commerce marketplaces rather than the bootleg sellers who typically operate outside concert venues.

The defendants, named only via a "Schedule A" list of seller aliases, are accused of running stores designed to look like authorised retailers, allegedly from China or other jurisdictions with weak trademark enforcement. Merch Traffic, which says it is the exclusive US licensing agent for acts including Harry Styles, The Cure and Eazy-E, is seeking injunctive relief, profit accounting, treble damages, or alternatively statutory damages of up to $2 million per counterfeit trademark, and wants platforms such as Amazon, eBay, Temu, PayPal and Walmart ordered to remove the listings. The case follows a string of similar actions this year by Bruce Springsteen's team, HYBE and Universal's Bravado, though those targeted physical bootleggers at specific tour venues rather than online sellers.