Swift — Event Ticket Queues & Price Tracking

Part of the Circuit Forge LLC "AI for the tasks you hate most" suite.

Status: Backlog — not yet started. Peregrine must prove the model first.

What it does

Swift manages the full event ticket lifecycle: joining queues at the right moment, monitoring resale prices against face value, tracking algorithmic price surges, filing FTC/DOJ/state AG complaints about anti-competitive practices, and flagging when fees are added deceptively at checkout.

Swifts spend almost their entire lives airborne — they sleep, eat, and mate in flight. They never land unless they have to. Speed is everything. That's what getting tickets requires.

The Taylor Swift / Ticketmaster Eras Tour fiasco in 2022 was the public inflection point that brought Congressional attention to Live Nation's monopoly. The name is intentional.

Why it's hard

The ticket market is deliberately hostile:

• Presale codes are distributed unevenly and expire without notice
• Queue systems are opaque — you can wait 2 hours and be dropped without recourse
• Dynamic pricing (Ticketmaster "Platinum") can 3–10× face value within minutes of sale opening
• Fees (facility, service, order processing) are hidden until the final checkout screen
• Secondary market is dominated by bots and scalpers with API access
• DOJ antitrust investigation into Live Nation is ongoing but slow

Core pipeline

Configure target event (artist, venue, date, max price + fees)
→ Monitor presale / onsale announcement dates → Alert with countdown
→ Queue entry timing optimization (enter queue N minutes before open)
→ Price monitoring: face value vs. resale vs. dynamic pricing over time
→ Checkout fee tracker: capture final all-in price at checkout
→ Complaint drafting: FTC, DOJ, state AG (NY, CA), CFPB for fee deception

Price tracking & complaint triggers

• Platinum / dynamic pricing surge > X% above face value → flag + log evidence
• Fees > Y% of ticket price at checkout → flag as potentially deceptive (FTC Sec. 5)
• Queue drop without notification → log with timestamp + draft complaint
• Presale code not honored despite correct entry → log + escalation path

Regulatory angle

Issue	Relevant body	Basis
Algorithmic price gouging	FTC	Section 5 unfair/deceptive practices
Monopoly / anti-competitive bundling	DOJ Antitrust	Sherman Act (ongoing investigation)
Hidden fees at checkout	FTC, state AGs	Junk fee rule, consumer protection laws
Bot-assisted scalping	FTC, state AGs	BOTS Act (2016), state-level anti-scalping
Venue exclusivity contracts	DOJ	Vertical restraints investigation

Product code (license key)

CFG-SWFT-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX

Tech notes

• Shared circuitforge-core scaffold
• Queue timing: Playwright automation for queue entry at optimal moment
• Price history tracking: scrape Ticketmaster, AXS, SeatGeek, StubHub over time
• Checkout fee capture: Playwright session recorder for fee breakdown at checkout
• Complaint generation: FTC complaint portal (ftc.gov/complaint), state AG formats
• DOJ complaint: antitrust.atr@usdoj.gov structured complaint template
• Fee database: track which venues / promoters use which fee structures