The Justice Department accused Ticketmaster and its parent company Live Nation Entertainment of operating an unlawful dominance over life events in America, stifling competition and raising ticket prices, in a broad antitrust lawsuit filed by the Justice Department on Thursday.
The petition, filed in federal court in Manhattan, was being brought along with 30 state and district attorneys general and aims to end the dominance that they claim is squeezing out smaller organizers and harmed artists.
” We allege that Life Nation relies on immoral, antitrust do to practice its dominant control over the life events industry in the United States at the cost of fans, artists, smaller promoters, and place operators”, Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. The result is that supporters pay more in fees, designers have fewer opportunities to perform concerts, smaller organizers are constrained, and spaces have fewer true options for ticketing services. It is time to split up Survive Nation- Ticketmaster”.
The Justice Department accuses Live Nation of a number of practices that allow it to keep a foothold on the live music scene, including using long-term contracts to prevent venues from using multiple ticket sellers, threatening venues that they could lose money and fans if they do n’t choose Ticketmaster, among others. According to the Justice Department, Live Nation also threatened to retaliate against one company if it did n’t stop a subsidiary from competing for artist promotion contracts.
Life Nation said in prepared remarks Thursday that the Justice Department’s complaint “wo n’t solve the issues viewers care about relating to ticket prices, service charges, and exposure to in- need shows”.
According to Life Nation,” calling Ticketmaster a monopoly may be a PR win for the Court in the short term, but it will lose in court because it ignores the fundamental economy of life pleasure” — stating that most service charges are paid to facilities. The firm said it would justify itself “against these false allegations” and press for other reforms.
Life Nation has for decades denied breaking antitrust laws and added on Thursday that contest had” gradually eroded Ticketmaster’s market share and profit percentage.”
However, rival ticket sellers have long complained that Live Nation makes it difficult for them to disrupt the market by using tactics like withholding acts if those venues do n’t agree to use Ticketmaster’s service.
The lawsuit is just the latest instance of the Biden administration’s violent antitrust enforcement strategy targeting businesses that have been accused of forming illegal monopolies that container out rivals and drive up prices. The Justice Department sued Apple in March, alleging that the software giant possesses monopoly control over the laptop market. Additionally, the Democrat leadership has fought off other tech giants like Google and Amazon.
Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in a statement that” Today’s activity is a step forward in making this time of live music more accessible for the fans, the designers, and the business that supports them.”
Ticketmaster, which merged with Live Nation in 2010, is the world’s largest ticket seller. In its annual report released last month, the business disclosed that Ticketmaster had distributed more than 620 million tickets through its systems in 2023.
According to information in a federal lawsuit filed by consumers in 2022, about 70 % of tickets to major concert venues in the United States are sold through Ticketmaster. The company owns or controls more than 265 of North America’s concert venues and dozens of top amphitheaters, according to the Justice Department.
The ticket seller’s site crashed during a presale event for a Taylor Swift stadium tour in November 2022, sparking outrage. The company claimed that its website was flooded with both fans and bot attacks, which were posing as consumers to buy tickets and sell them on secondary websites. In response to the scandal, congressional hearings and bills in state legislatures were introduced to improve consumer protection.
As long as Live Nation agreed not to retaliate against concert venues for ten years of using other ticket companies, the Justice Department approved of the merger. The department conducted an investigation in 2019 and discovered that Live Nation had “repeatedly” violated that agreement, and it had also extended the prohibition on retaliation against concert venues to 2025.
