The Department of Justice is seeking to disband Live Nation-Ticketmaster through a major antitrust lawsuit

The Justice Department and dozens of state attorneys general filed a major antitrust lawsuit Thursday seeking a breakup of Ticketmaster’s owner, Live Nation Entertainment, over the company’s unlawful domination of the concert ticketing industry.

The lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice and 30 state and district attorneys general in federal court in the Southern District of New York accuses the company of creating a monopoly in the live entertainment market that harms music fans, artists and promoters across the United States. through higher prices and frustrating consumer experiences.

“As a result, fans pay more in fees, artists have fewer opportunities to play shows, smaller promoters are pushed out, and venues have fewer choices in ticket sales,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement announcing the lawsuit. “It’s time to part ways with Live Nation.”

“For too long, Live Nation and Ticketmaster have unfairly and illegally governed the live events world, using their dominance to overcharge fans, abuse venues and restrict artists,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement. “When companies like Live Nation control every aspect of an event, it creates bad blood – concertgoers and sports fans suffer and are forced to pay more. Everyone agrees that Live Nation and Ticketmaster are the problem and it’s time for a new era. Today we are taking this important action to protect consumers and force big companies to stop abusing their influence and start forming.”

The extensive lawsuit is the result of more than two years of investigation into the company, which has been under increasing public attention since the end of 2022 following the fiasco related to the pre-sale 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.

In the lawsuit, the Justice Department accuses LiveNation of trying to block competitors to protect what the company calls its “flywheel,” described in court documents as “a self-perpetuating business model that captures fees and revenues from concert fans and sponsorships and then leverages those revenue to connect artists with exclusive promotional offers, and then leverages its powerful live content base to sign long-term exclusive ticketing deals with venues, thus starting the cycle all over again.”

Live Nation did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment on the lawsuit, although its CEO Joe Berchtold has defended the company’s business practices in other ways, including during a controversial appearance before Congress early last year.

On Thursday, after the lawsuit was filed, Live Nation released a statement saying in part that “it is absurd to claim that Live Nation and Ticketmaster have monopoly power.”

The lawsuit “blames concert promoters and ticketing companies – neither of which controls ticket prices – for high ticket prices,” said Dan Wall, executive vice president of corporate and regulatory affairs at Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. “It ignores everything that is actually responsible for higher ticket prices, from rising production costs to the popularity of artists, to the 24/7 online ticket scalping that exposes the public’s willingness to pay much more than the original cost of tickets. He blames Live Nation and Ticketmaster for high service fees, but ignores 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 characteristic feature of a monopolist is the monopoly profits obtained from monopolistic prices. Live Nation does not fit this profile in any way. Ticketmaster’s service fees are no higher than elsewhere, and often lower. And even taking into account sponsorships, the advertising company that helps maintain ticket prices, the company’s overall net profit margin is at the low end of profitable S&P 500,” Wall said.

“It is also clear that we are yet another victim of this administration’s decision to hand over antitrust enforcement to a populist pressure that simply rejects how antitrust law works,” Wall said in part. “Some people call it ‘anti-monopoly,’ but in reality it’s just anti-business.”

Among the practices cited by the Justice Department are allegations that Live Nation took advantage of its relationship with Oak View Group, which the lawsuit says describes itself as a “hammer” for Live Nation and avoided bidding against the company for exclusive deals with artists and major venues concerts .

According to the Department of Justice, the company also allegedly resorted to threatening potential competitors seeking to enter the concert promotion industry and creating an environment in which venue owners would be wary of contracting with Live Nation-Ticketmaster rivals.

Live Nation-Ticketmaster is also accused of entering into lengthy exclusivity agreements with venues that, the lawsuit claims, prevent them from switching to better or cheaper ticketing systems, and in some cases, the allegedly locked-out venues even prevent the use of multiple event tickets.

Live Nation was already under the Justice Department’s approval when it approved its merger with Ticketmaster during the Obama administration in 2010 – with conditions that included a ban on threatening concert venues that chose to use competing ticketing companies. This decree was extended in 2019 after the department found that the company had violated its terms.

The lawsuit is the latest in a series of aggressive antitrust actions by the Biden administration that have seen similar enforcement efforts challenging companies like Apple, Google and Amazon over what it says are clear anti-competitive practices that have harmed American consumers.

The White House supports the Justice Department’s lawsuit against Live Nation and Ticketmaster, saying Thursday afternoon that “while we do not comment on specific enforcement issues, President Biden strongly supports fair and robust antitrust enforcement.”

“As the president has said, the American people are tired of being made to look like losers,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.

“The President established the Unfair and Illegal Pricing Strike Force because no American should have to pay higher prices or lose choices because companies break the law and engage in anticompetitive practices. “His administration has taken action to combat corporate greed by banning hidden junk fees – – including event tickets – that unfairly raise prices for hard-working families trying to make ends meet,” Jean-Pierre said.

ABC News’ Zunaira Zaki and Justin Ryan Gomez contributed to this report.

This story has been updated.