Justice Department sues to break up Live Nation–Ticketmaster

The lawsuit seeks to effectively undo the merger, with Attorney General Merrick Garland stating, “It’s time to break up Live Nation–Ticketmaster.”

Ticketmaster, the lawsuit alleges, uses unlawful, anti-competitive conduct to exercise monopoly control over the live events industry. The lawsuit accuses the company of taking retaliatory actions against companies that try to compete with it and threatening venues that cooperate with other ticketing companies and taking retaliatory actions.

He further said that concert venues are bound to long-term contracts that do not allow them to work with other ticketing companies, and artists can only perform at Live Nation-owned venues.

“As a result, fans pay more in fees, artists have fewer opportunities to play shows, smaller promoters are squeezed out and venues have fewer choices in ticketing,” Garland said.

The lawsuit also accused Live Nation of using Oak View Group, which manages stadiums, arenas and convention centers, as a “gavel” and “protection (or),” with Oak View Group allegedly not bidding against Live Nation for tours for artists, which pushed venues to sign exclusive contracts with Ticketmaster.

Live Nation’s statement said the Justice Department’s lawsuit “ignores everything that is actually responsible for higher ticket prices, from rising production costs to artists’ popularity to 24/7 online ticket scalping that reveals audiences’ willingness to pay much more than for tickets.” usually”. Cost. He blames Live Nation and Ticketmaster for high service fees, but ignores the fact that Ticketmaster only keeps a modest portion of those fees. In fact, primary ticket sales are one of the cheapest digital distributions in the economy.”

The company – wrote Dan Wall, head of the corporate department – does not set prices, and these are subject to the rules of supply and demand. The fees, he said, largely go to the facilities.

The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan federal court, was jointly filed with 30 state and district attorneys general.

The lawsuit did not provide details on how the Justice Department would like to see Live Nation broken up. However, an investigation into the company reportedly began in 2022 and became a priority after so many fans failed to sell tickets during a pre-sale advertising Taylor Swift’s “Eras.” The Senate Judiciary Committee quickly convened for a hearing on the live entertainment ticketing industry, which lawmakers on both sides of the opinion have blasted as a monopoly that has failed consumers.

Live Nation shares fell 5% on Thursday morning.

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