There are some companies that have earned themselves an infamous reputation that will forever precede them. Comcast has tales told of their legendarily bad service, gamers know Electronic Arts as a terrible publisher… and then there’s Ticketmaster. Through surcharges, fees, and numerous lawsuits, you would be hard pressed to find anyone who would honestly tell you, “Why yes, I love Ticketmaster.” Turns out the Department of Justice doesn’t seem too fond of them, and have officially filed an antitrust suit.
In 2010, Live Nation and Ticketmaster merged to form Live Nation Entertainment. Prior to that, Ticketmaster did not have a sterling reputation in the industry. They were accused of a number of shady business dealings, some of which we discussed after the Bad Bunny ticket fiasco of 2022. What we didn’t dive too deep into at the time was the staggering conflict of interest that was ignored when Live Nation and Ticketmaster merged. How can it not be a conflict when Live Nation promotes and operates the venue for a concert and then also sells the tickets to it?
At the time of the merger, the combined companies promised the United States Department of Justice that other venues that didn’t use Ticketmaster wouldn’t be denied Live Nation events. That’s debatable right there considering the allegations that arouse to the Justice Department in 2018. Live Nation was accused of doing exactly what was feared, that they punished venues by denying them concerts if they didn’t use Ticketmaster. And maybe no continued action would’ve been taken if not for the dynamic pricing fiasco that Ticketmaster pulled with artists like Taylor Swift and Bruce Springsteen.
“We allege that Live Nation relies on unlawful, anticompetitive conduct to exercise its monopolistic control over the live events industry in the United States at the cost of fans, artists, smaller promoters, and venue operators,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. “The result is that fans pay more in fees, artists have fewer opportunities to play concerts, smaller promoters get squeezed out, and venues have fewer real choices for ticketing services. It is time to break up Live Nation-Ticketmaster.”
Maybe it was the pressure from the Swifties, but the Department of Justice is taking action and slapping Live Nation Entertainment with an antitrust lawsuit. It’s absurd that it took this long considering the 2018 investigation already found evidence the company was behaving inappropriately and its two years since their current investigation they started in 2022 surrounding the same behaviors.
“The live music industry in America is broken because Live Nation-Ticketmaster has an illegal monopoly,” Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter said. “Our antitrust lawsuit seeks to break up the Live-Nation-Ticketmaster monopoly, which will restore competition to the benefit of fans and artists alike.”
This promises to be an ongoing news story, especially given how Ticketmaster is the biggest name in ticket sales. We will update as the legal battle unfolds.
UPDATE- Live Nation has Responded
In a lengthy statement posted to Live Nation’s website, Dan Wall Executive Vice President, Corporate and Regulatory Affairs, Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. calls the DOJ suit “absurd,” and denies that Live Nation and Ticketmaster “are wielding monopoly power.”
You can read the full retort here.
