The US Department of Justice and several states have filed an antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation and are trying to break up the company behind Ticketmaster.
The lawsuit effectively seeks to undo the merger, with Attorney General Merrick Garland saying, “It’s time to break up Live Nation-Ticketmaster.”
Ticketmaster, the lawsuit claims, uses illegal and anticompetitive conduct to exert monopolistic control over the live events industry. The lawsuit accuses the company of retaliating against companies that try to compete with it and of threatening and retaliating against venues that work with other ticket companies.
Additionally, he said, concert venues are locked into long-term contracts that do not allow them to work with other ticketing companies, and artists are restricted to performing in venues owned by Live Nation.
“The result is that fans pay more fees, artists have fewer opportunities to play shows, smaller promoters are priced out, and venues have fewer real options for ticketing services,” Garland said.
The lawsuit also accused Live Nation of using Oak View Group, which operates stadiums, arenas and convention centers, as a “hammer” and “protecting[or],” with Oak View Group reportedly not bidding against Live Nation for artist tours, which led to venues signing exclusive deals with Ticketmaster.
Live Nation, in a statement, said the DOJ’s lawsuit “ignores everything that is actually responsible for rising ticket prices, from rising production costs to the popularity of artists, to 24-hour online ticket scalping. hours a day, 7 days a week, which reveals the public’s willingness to pay much more than the primary tickets”. cost. It blames Live Nation and Ticketmaster for high service fees, but ignores that Ticketmaster only retains a modest portion of those fees. In fact, primary ticketing is one of the cheapest digital distributions in the economy.”
The company, wrote Dan Wall, head of corporate affairs, does not set prices and prices are subject to the rules of supply and demand. The fees, he said, largely go to locals.
The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan federal court, was filed jointly by 30 state and district attorneys general.
The filing did not go into detail about how the Justice Department would like to see Live Nation broken up. The investigation into the company dates back to 2022, however — and became a priority after so many fans were left out of ticket sales during a pre-sale event for Taylor Swift’s Eras promotion. The Senate Judiciary Committee quickly convened a hearing dedicated to the live entertainment ticketing industry, which lawmakers on both sides of the aisle said was a monopoly that had failed consumers.
Live Nation shares fell 5% on Thursday morning news.
