Department of Justice to Announce Lawsuit Against Live Nation Over Ticket Prices: Sources

The Justice Department and a group of state attorneys general are expected to announce an antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation as early as Thursday over Ticketmaster’s dominance in the concert ticketing market, two sources familiar with the matter told ABC News on Wednesday.

Details of the pending lawsuit were not immediately clear.

The Justice Department’s antitrust lawsuit follows a more than two-year investigation into whether the company created a monopoly in the concert ticket market through its exclusive contracts with venues.

The Justice Department declined to comment on the investigation. Live Nation had no immediate comment on the investigation.

The Washington Post and Bloomberg were the first to report on the expected lawsuit.

The company has been under increased scrutiny since late 2022 following the pre-sale fiasco of Taylor Swift’s “Eras Tour.”

Ticketmaster, which controls more than 70% of the ticket and live events market, collapsed on the first day of sale, leaving millions of fans out of luck or scrambling to find more expensive tickets on the secondary market.

A second StubHub ticket for the show sold for $22,000.

Live Nation admitted to pre-sale issues and said high demand for the show, technical issues and bots were behind it. The company said any customer with the “Verified Fan” code could purchase an “Eras Tour” ticket.

Swift addressed the incident without naming Live Nation or Ticketmaster, and chastised the system.

“It’s really hard for me to trust a third-party entity when it comes to relationships and loyalty like this, and it’s terrible for me to see hopeless mistakes happen,” Swift said in a statement.

Ticketmaster and Live Nation have been accused of mistreating customers through speculative ticket sales, fraudulent websites and high hidden fees since their merger in 2010.

In 2019, the company paid monetary penalties related to the company’s violation of the agreed terms of the Department of Justice consent decree during the final merger.

Swift fans have filed a lawsuit against Live Nation over the Eras Tour fiasco, alleging that the company violated antitrust laws and defrauded customers.

In January 2023, Joe Berchtold, president and chief financial officer of Live Nation, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee and was questioned by members of both sides of the issue on the matter.

Berchtold apologized for the fiasco and blamed ticket scalping as the cause.

“There are problems in the ticketing industry – problems that we believe can and should be solved through regulation,” he said.

Last June, Live Nation representatives met with President Joe Biden and later announced an “upfront full price,” which includes fees charged to the consumer when purchasing a ticket.

ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa and Gabe Ferris contributed to this report.