Posted on: May 22, 2024, 09:45h.
Last updated on: May 22, 2024, 09:46h.
The US Justice Department will file an antitrust lawsuit in federal court against Live Nation Entertainment, the parent company of music promoter Live Nation and ticket sales giant Ticketmaster, according to Bloomberg News. The lawsuit is expected to be filed in the Southern District of New York on Thursday.
At issue is Live Nation’s alleged monopoly over live entertainment in the US and the exorbitant fees Ticketmaster is able to charge as a result.
In its lawsuit, the DOJ’s options range from requiring Live Nation and Ticketmaster to stop any illegal behavior, a common request, to asking a court to break the two companies up, which is rare but possible.
Live Nation and Ticketmaster merged in 2010, despite concerns about a potential monopoly. The companies now control estimated 70% of the ticketing and live event venues market — possibly even more in Las Vegas, though a city-by-city breakdown could not be found.
Response Not So Swift
The precipitating incident for the lawsuit was pop superstar Taylor Swift’s “The Eras” tour, for which Ticketmaster canceled a public on-sale date in November 2022 because it screwed up and sold all 2.4 million tickets during its presale.
It was the first time in the California-based ticket distributor’s 47-year history that it has canceled a previously announced on-sale because of a lack of inventory.
“It’s really difficult for me to trust an outside entity with these relationships and loyalties, and excruciating for me to just watch mistakes happen with no recourse,” Swift wrote in an Instagram post at the time. “There are a multitude of reasons why people had such a hard time trying to get tickets, and I’m trying to figure out how this situation can be improved moving forward.”
The DOJ opened its probe of Live Nation shortly following the fiasco. And, at a US Senate hearing in January 2023, several senators slammed Live Nation’s lack of transparency and inability to block bot purchases of tickets.
A Taylor Swift fan filed a class action suit against Live Nation in December 2022 over the debacle, alleging fraud, price-fixing, and antitrust violations. The lawsuit, joined by thousands of fans, claimed that Ticketmaster was “a monopoly” that “knowingly misled millions of fans.”
A year later, the fan, Michelle Sterloff, dropped her case. Although she never stated why, it was reported shortly beforehand that both sides were engaged in “ongoing settlement discussions.”
Ticketmaster’s Defense
Earlier this year, Live Nation’s head of Corporate Affairs, Dan Wall, defended his company’s policies, claiming in a blog post that ticket prices are determined by artists and their teams, while additional service charges are determined by the venues themselves.
“Fans are also told that service charges are Ticketmaster’s way of raising ticket prices,” he wrote. “In fact, Ticketmaster does not set service charges, venues do, and most of the money goes to the venues.”
