The Department of Justice officially files an antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation

U.S. Department of Justice officials have formally filed an antitrust lawsuit against event organizer and ticket reseller Live Nation (LYV). Yahoo Finance legal reporter Alexis Keenan joins Market Domination to explain the alleged regulatory violations by Live Nation that the Justice Department is raising in its case. Concert-goers have been angry for years about inflated ticket prices and online fees when purchasing from Live Nation, which merged with Ticketmaster in 2010.

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This post was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.

Video transcription

The Justice Department is stepping up its antitrust enforcement after Live Nation filed a lawsuit on Thursday seeking to break up the entertainment giant.

Yahoo Finance’s Keenan provides more details.

Hi, we may have suspected this since the directors got ha before the Taylor Congress and so on.

But now we know the details.

Yes.

So everyone saw it, but it’s a very large lawsuit.

And the deal that J is accusing Live Nation of is that it used coercive tactics and violated an agreement it made after getting approval from the Department of Justice in 2010 to go ahead and merge with Ticketmaster, which was under the Obama administration, and then another an amended settlement to keep intact the merger that took place in 2020.

The Department of Justice now claims to be the watchdog of the entire US live music industry.

So an ecosystem that actually enables promotion and events in the US.

Now who do they think is getting hurt here?

They say that artists, um, like venues, fans, competitors, when it comes to artists, they say that artists are locked out of the places where they live and that the live nation is heavily arming artists and saying, well, if you don’t take advantage of our promotional services, you will not visit these best places when it comes to places.

They say they’re imposing these places, these long-term contracts that say you have to only use Ticketmaster to sell tickets or else.

There is also no way for fans to control how they purchase tickets or control the fees they pay.

And if you look at the list of fees in this complaint, you have service fees, platinum fees, VIP order fees, processing fees, payment processing fees.

You have an idea.

Uh, I just went to Ticketmaster right before he came in here and tried to buy $300 worth of tickets.

So two tickets and on top of that it became an offer for PLN 359,95.

So they don’t like it.

They think it’s not good for consumers and it’s not good for competition.

And as for a living nation?

They said that Ticketmaster is not a monopoly at all, and by the way, this lawsuit will not solve the problem that consumers have with fees, because most of the fees, in their opinion, go to the venues.

Uh, but that’s a really rare occurrence.

Doj here is asking for a break up.

They put it on paper.

They say at least we want you to get rid of Ticketmaster.

And what do analysts think it will do?

They say this will leave the company a shell of its former self because most of the fees, um, most of the profits are generated by this, uh, Ticket Master operation.

I mean, I just remember being old enough to remember when Ticketmaster wasn’t part of a living nation.

Normal.

Both you and me, and the fees were still high, still high.

So there may be some merit to this.

I just, you know, I just wonder, is this really going to solve the problem that they’re trying to solve?

Or would some legal measure on ticket fees be needed instead?

Hasn’t Congress addressed this issue?

They talked about it, but we didn’t see it.

That is, if you have control of the market, according to the Department of Justice, the percentage share is that on the ticketing side, Ticketmaster has 80% of that market.

I mean, that’s what it is.

But what was it before Live Nation bought it?

I don’t know if I’ll find out in our next story.

And on the promotional side, they say it’s 6060 plus percent.

Uh, so they’re really making these allegations just like some of the other complaints that have made up the antitrust complaints filed by this administration.

They say it’s a combination of actions.

Uh, it’s a strong arm of various parties who are saying that we’re really dealing with collusion, they’re not necessarily using that word, but they’re saying that there have also been takeovers of smaller promoters along the way.

Um So, you know, maybe some points will be taken away by ju, they’re asking for a jury here.

It’s also a new kind of move by the Department of Justice that doesn’t happen very often in this case, this jury.

Yes of course. This all happened because of the Taylor Swift meltdown or sale.

So, uh, a lot of attention was paid to this.

Thanks a lot, Alexis.

I appreciate it.