The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is suing Live Nation, arguing that the major concert promoter and its subsidiary Ticketmaster have “monopolized” the live events industry.
The antitrust lawsuit was launched Thursday by the DOJ, 30 U.S. states and the District of Columbia, with U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland saying, “It’s time to break up Live Nation.”
The entertainment company merged with Ticketmaster in 2010. Through Ticketmaster, Live Nation now controls approximately 80% or more of major venue ticketing for concerts, the suit says.
A Live Nation spokesperson said the company would defend itself “against these baseless allegations” and said the DOJ would lose in court because the case “ignores the fundamental economics of live entertainment.”
Ticketmaster, which largely dominates the ticketing industry, has for years left fans and artists frustrated with hidden fees, rising costs and limited ticket availability due to pre-sales.
Its dominance in the industry came under scrutiny from US politicians in 2022when Ticketmaster was forced to cancel its general ticket sale for Taylor Swift highly anticipated Eras tour due to “extraordinarily high demands”.
At the time, the superstar criticized Ticketmaster on social mediasaying it was “excruciating for me to just see mistakes happening with no recourse” after Swift fans reported long wait times and site outages during pre-sales.
The star said 2.4 million fans were able to buy tickets, which was “really amazing…but it really pisses me off that a lot of them feel like they’ve had multiple attacks from bear to get them.”
Thursday’s lawsuit highlights aggressive approach That of President Joe Biden Antitrust authorities have embraced it as they seek to create more competition in a wide range of sectors, from “big tech” to health care and groceries.
In March, the Department of Justice filed a complaint against Apple alleging that the tech giant holds monopolistic power in the smartphone market.
“Live Nation relies on illegal and anti-competitive behavior to exert its monopolistic control over the live events industry.
in the United States, to the detriment of fans, artists, small promoters and venue operators,” Mr. Garland said.
He added that as a result, fans pay more money, artists have fewer opportunities to perform and small promoters are squeezed out.
The lawsuit says Live Nation directly manages more than 400 music artists and controls about 60% of concert promotions at major venues.
It also owns or controls more than 265 concert halls in North America.
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In 2010, the Justice Department approved Ticketmaster’s controversial merger with Live Nation, subject to certain conditions.
to prevent the merged company from harming competition.
In 2020, a court extended most of the DOJ’s merger oversight through 2025 because, according to the department, Ticketmaster
retaliated against stadiums and arenas that chose to use other ticketing companies.
Live Nation has said in the past that it believes its business practices are legal and that the investigation was prompted by complaints from competitors, including resellers.
A company spokesperson said Thursday that the lawsuit “will not resolve the issues fans are concerned about regarding ticket prices, service fees and access to high-demand shows.”
Live Nation added that “calling Ticketmaster a monopoly might be a public relations victory for the DOJ in the short term, but it will lose in court because it ignores the basic economics of live entertainment” – clarifying that most a service fee goes to the venues.
