Live Nation to be sued by US Justice Department over violation of antitrust laws
nme.comWall Street Journal, with the suit set to allege that the company’s concert promotion and ticketing operations have undermined competition in the live music industry.The report claims that since the 2010 merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster, the enterprise has gone on to control more than 80 per cent of the market for ticket sales in the US.
The Journal reports that issues covered by the suit will include unfair market leverage, high transaction fees and flawed customer service.In response to the report, Live Nation’s head of corporate affairs, Dan Wall, argued that the company in fact has more competition than ever. “If you have to hone in on one slice of the market in order to allege a monopoly, then there isn’t one,” he said.Last February, a previous antitrust lawsuit that had been filed against Live Nation was thrown out by a federal appeals court after it was ruled that buyers had waived their right to sue.A class action suit had been filed on behalf of “hundreds of thousands, if not millions” of customers in April 2020, claiming that Live Nation was a “monster [that] must be stopped”, before being dismissed by the court of appeals.Ticketmaster faced high-profile controversy in late 2022 after well-publicised issues surrounding the ticket sales for Taylor Swift’s ‘Eras Tour’.
The company said there had been “historically unprecedented demand” for the concerts.As well as US lawmakers calling for an investigation into the company as a result, two US senators urged the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to answer for “the steps” it was taking to “combat the use and operation of bots in the online ticket marketplace”.Some fans of Swift later filed a class action lawsuit against Ticketmaster, with plaintiffs accusing the.
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