A day after the Department of Justice trial, Live Nation faces a consumer antitrust lawsuit

Live Nation and its Ticketmaster company are reportedly facing a consumer antitrust lawsuit, which follows a suit filed by the Department of Justice.

The consumer lawsuit is the first of many because it often follows legal action by U.S. or state attorneys general, Reuters reported on Friday (May 24).

The report shows that, like the Department of Justice’s lawsuit, the consumer lawsuit accuses Live Nation of exercising monopoly control over its industry.

The report says the consumer lawsuit seeks $5 billion in damages for potentially millions of customers.

The report comes a day after the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit to disband Live Nation, alleging antitrust violations and monopolistic practices in the live events industry.

“We allege that Live Nation relies on unlawful, anticompetitive conduct to exercise its monopoly control over the U.S. live events industry at the expense of fans, artists, smaller promoters and venue operators,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a press release on Thursday (May 23). “As a result, fans pay more in fees, artists have fewer opportunities to play shows, smaller promoters are squeezed out and venues have less real choice in ticketing services. It is time to part ways with Live Nation-Ticketmaster.”

Live Nation responded to the Justice Department’s lawsuit, calling the allegations “absurd.”

“The complaint – and even more so the press conference announcing it – attempts to paint Live Nation and Ticketmaster as the cause of fan frustration in the live entertainment industry,” wrote Dan Wall, executive vice president of corporate and regulatory affairs at Live Nation. in Thursday’s blog post.

“Despite acknowledging that ‘the nominal value of tickets is typically set or approved by the artists,’ he blames concert promoters and ticketing companies – neither of which controls ticket prices – for the high ticket prices,” Wall wrote. “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 reveals the public’s willingness to pay significantly more than original ticket prices.”

The federal government did not try to block the 2010 merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster.

However, the company has since faced criticism over ticket fees, customer service and allegedly anti-competitive practices.