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ticketmaster
'Historic' DOJ Antitrust Suit Could Topple Live Nation-Ticketmaster Monopoly
"For far too long, Live Nation-Ticketmaster has acted as the mafia boss of the live events industry—using its power to rip off fans with sky-high prices and junk fees, exploit musicians and artists, and bully workers," an expert said.
May 23, 2024
The U.S. Department of Justice and 30 state attorneys general filed an antitrust lawsuit on Thursday against entertainment company Live Nation—and its subsidiary Ticketmaster—calling it an "illegal monopoly," in a move celebrated by public interest groups.
The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleges that Live Nation engages in exclusionary conduct, barring competitors from entering the industry or expanding their businesses, which leads to higher ticket prices for concertgoers and a smaller take for performers and small-business owners.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, who leads the DOJ, said in a statement that the company "relies on unlawful, anti-competitive conduct to exercise its monopolistic control over the live events industry." He said the monopoly is bad for fans, artists, promoters, and venues. "It is time to break up Live Nation-Ticketmaster," he said.
Today’s lawsuit by the Justice Department Antitrust Division is an enormous step forward in preventing one company from dictating the ebbs and flows of an entire industry. pic.twitter.com/A2n5NAQJrR
— U.S. Department of Justice (@TheJusticeDept) May 23, 2024
The DOJ's statement cited seven specific tactics that the company has used to eliminate competition:
- Turning Oak View Group, a potential competitor, into a partner;
- Retaliating against potential entrants;
- Threatening and retaliating against venues that work with rivals;
- Locking out competition with exclusionary contracts;
- Blocking venues from using multiple ticketers;
- Restricting artists' access to venues;
- Acquiring competitors and competitive threats.
The 2010 merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster allowed the merged firm to gain dominance over the industry by combining venue-operating and ticketing, and it used its dominance to wield power by, for example, threatening to boycott bands unless they used Ticketmaster, according to a Thursday statement from the American Economic Liberties Project (AELP).
"Today is a historic, long-awaited day for fans, artists, and independent businesses in the live events industry—the Department of Justice is officially seeking to break up one of America's most infamous monopolies," said Morgan Harper, AELP's director of policy and advocacy. "For far too long, Live Nation-Ticketmaster has acted as the mafia boss of the live events industry—using its power to rip off fans with sky-high prices and junk fees, exploit musicians and artists, and bully workers and small-business owners in the industry."
The lawsuit comes amid a wave of antitrust action by the Biden administration, led by the DOJ and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), whose chairperson, Lina Khan, has been a prominent critic of Big Tech and monopolistic practices. The DOJ has investigated UnitedHealth Group, the world's largest health insurance company, and filed suits against Apple and Google, while the FTC has taken on Amazon, among others.
While the antitrust actions have faced pushback, public interest groups have applauded them—and pushed for similar action to be taken in the entertainment industry, as the DOJ did on Thursday. Sandeep Vaheesan, legal director of Open Markets Institute, said in a statement that the new suit could be a "critical blow" for Live Nation, to the benefit of the American public.
"Through a series of acquisitions and coercive tactics, Live Nation has unfairly dominated the promotion, hosting, and ticketing of concerts for years to the great detriment of artists, fans, and independent businesses," Vaheesan said. "Critically, rather than attempt to remedy this monopoly through surgical fixes, the government wisely seeks to terminate Live Nation's control of the industry through a breakup of this behemoth."
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'Break Up Ticketmaster' Coalition Applauds DOJ Probe of Online Ticketing Giant
"This is a day of optimism and hope for over 40,000 people who have called on the DOJ to break up Live Nation-Ticketmaster, a corporation that has bent and broken the industry to its will since its entities merged in 2010."
Nov 18, 2022
A coalition of anti-monopoly advocates cheered Friday after reporting confirmed that the U.S. Department of Justice has launched an antitrust investigation into Live Nation, the owner of Ticketmaster.
"We are thrilled to see the Department of Justice Antitrust Division investigate Live Nation-Ticketmaster's ongoing monopoly abuse of fans, artists, venues, and live events professionals," the Break Up Ticketmaster Coalition said in a statement.
The probe predates the debacle that began this week when Ticketmaster's website malfunctioned as millions of people attempted to purchase tickets for pop star Taylor Swift's upcoming concert tour, according toThe New York Times, which reported:
Members of the Antitrust Division's staff at the Justice Department have in recent months contacted music venues and players in the ticket market, asking about Live Nation's practices and the wider dynamics of the industry, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is sensitive. The inquiry appears to be broad, looking at whether the company maintains a monopoly over the industry, one of the people said.
Nevertheless, the bungled presale of Swift tickets drew fresh attention to the negative consequences of Live Nation's 2010 acquisition of Ticketmaster, a merger greenlighted by the Obama administration.
Earlier this week, as Common Dreams reported, Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (Minn.), and other lawmakers called on the Biden administration to "break up Ticketmaster."
Prior to the intervention of progressive members of Congress, the Break Up Ticketmaster Coalition launched a campaign last month to urge President Joe Biden's Justice Department to dismantle Live Nation's monopoly power. The effort quickly attracted tens of thousands of artists, fans, and policymakers.
"This is a day of optimism and hope for over 40,000 people who have called on the DOJ to break up Live Nation-Ticketmaster, a corporation that has bent and broken the industry to its will since its entities merged in 2010," the coalition said Friday.
As the Times reported:
When the Justice Department approved the merger--over significant opposition from the music industry--it required the company to sell some parts of its business. It also reached a legal settlement with the company that forbade Live Nation to threaten concert venues with losing access to its tours if those venues decided to use ticketing providers other than Ticketmaster. Those terms were set to last for 10 years, until 2020.
In late 2019, after an investigation, the Justice Department found that Live Nation had repeatedly violated this provision of its decree. It extended the terms of the settlement by five years, to 2025, and adjusted some of the agreement's language to clarify what the company was allowed to do when negotiating ticketing deals with venues
Members of the Justice Department staff have asked whether Live Nation is complying with the agreement as part of their new inquiry, said one of the people with knowledge of the matter. Officials at the agency have grown increasingly wary of such settlements, believing the best way to settle antitrust concerns is through changes to a company's structure.
The Break Up Ticketmaster Coalition is made up of a wide range of groups, including the American Economic Liberties Project, Artist Rights Alliance, Demand Progress, Fight Corporate Monopolies, More Perfect Union, Music Workers Alliance, Sports Fans Coalition, and the Union of Musicians and Allied Workers.
The campaign "is bringing together a diverse array of sports and music fans, artists, unions, and independent venue owners for one common goal: restore competition to the live events marketplace," said the coalition. "This is an amazing moment and a crucial first step to achieving that goal."
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