DOJ Sues Ticketmaster Parent Company; "It's Time To Break Up Livenation!"

[RAMROD 117,032]

The Justice Department filed a lawsuit Thursday seeking to break up Live Nation, alleging that the parent company of Ticketmaster has hurt consumers and violated antitrust laws by exercising outsize control over the live events industry.

The suit, filed in the Southern District of New York and backed by attorneys general for 29 states plus Washington, D.C., alleges that Live Nation has engaged in practices that harm the entire live entertainment industry — from artists and fans to venues and startups seeking to break into the business.

It says Live Nation directly manages more than 400 musical artists, controls some 60% of concert promotions at major venues and, through Ticketmaster, controls roughly 80% or more of major concert venues’ ticketing — plus a growing share of the resale market.

“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,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a news release. “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.”

Among the accusations against Live Nation:

- That it has worked with a venue management firm called Oak View Group to steer clients into signing exclusive agreements to use Ticketmaster. Co-founded by influential entertainment executive and former Live Nation chairman Irving Azoff, Oak View oversees dozens of arenas around the world. A representative for Oak View did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

- That it has sought to snuff out competition in the concert-promotion business through threats of retaliation and has acquired upstart groups it saw as threats.

That it signs long-term, “exclusionary” deals with venues that preempt them from looking to alternative management companies and from using multiple ticketing platforms.

- That Ticketmaster becomes the default ticketing platform for many artists because Live Nation controls a large share of venues where they’d seek to play.

In a statement, Live Nation said the Justice Department's allegations were "baseless" and that its actions would prove counterproductive.

"The DOJ’s lawsuit won’t solve the issues fans care about relating to ticket prices, service fees, and access to in-demand shows," it said. "Calling Ticketmaster a monopoly may be a PR win for the DOJ in the short term, but it will lose in court because it ignores the basic economics of live entertainment, such as the fact that the bulk of service fees go to venues, and that competition has steadily eroded Ticketmaster’s market share and profit margin."

The company also disputed that it plays a dominant role, saying Ticketmaster's market share has been declining for more than a decade.

And it said the suit ignores key factors that have made the live entertainment and ticket-buying experience for fans worse, like increasing production costs, surging artist popularity, and 24/7 online ticket scalping.

"Live Nation can offer and has offered fans, artists, venues and the rest of the performance ecosystem better prices and better services than they would receive if these complementary businesses were separated," it said. "Ticketmaster in particular is a far better, more artist- and fan-focused business under Live Nation’s ownership than it ever was as a standalone company. But that’s not how this DOJ sees it."

Ticketmaster has faced gripes from fans and artist for years, but the ire reached a fever pitch in 2022 following a botched ticket rollout for Taylor Swift’s “Eras Tour.” The Senate Judiciary Committee subsequently held a hearingon the company’s role in the ticketing industry.

Thursday’s lawsuit filing joins a handful of other major antitrust efforts initiated under President Joe Biden, who has made rooting out alleged monopolies a cornerstone of his presidency. 

Full article :

https://www.aol.com/time-break-live-nation-doj-143048231.html

[EGOT2027 10,966]

let’s ****ing gooooooooooooooo

[Celloo Deng 56,317]

 

[Vicixs 3,559]

I hope it gets to a point where we can sue and receive compensation. Theyve kept my money from cancelled concerts for YEARS now

[LaLa 19,898]

About damn time. Break 'em up. 

Wonder if this will affect Gaga in any meaningful way eventually, she and Bobby are under Artist Nation 

[Schwerk 7,453]

I hope this will change things for the better. Prices for live events are astronomical. Here in Europa it's not as bad as in the US yet, but it's still ridiculous.

I was checking out Jazz & Piano tickets back when they went on sale and the fees were out of this world. Probably a percentage of the ticket price, which is ridiculous. Handling fees should be a standard price, like 20 dollars per ticket. Not 300. 

[Alfonso 1,562]

Well, hopefully Ticketmaster gets what it deserves. It's about time. 

[Economy 52,844]

On 5/23/2024 at 12:54 PM, Grigio Guy said:

I hope it gets to a point where we can sue and receive compensation. Theyve kept my money from cancelled concerts for YEARS now

Wait u did not get refunds for cancelled shows??????

[homomo 23,883]

55 minutes ago, Economy said:

Wait u did not get refunds for cancelled shows??????

It took just over two years for me to get 500 english pounds back (850 bucks)

Bought Gaga tickets in March 2020. My refund request was denied for a year because the show was postponed and not officially cancelled. Then they said the show would be July 2021, but of course that was postponed too.

In April 2022 I moved back to Canada and spent 5 hrs on the phone with different people trying to explain "hey, i bought this ticket two years ago and live halfway across the world now"

Like, the least they couldve done was invested my money for me. Sheesh

[Vicixs 3,559]

11 hours ago, Economy said:

Wait u did not get refunds for cancelled shows??????

10000% they told me that my bank had received the money and it was simply not true. At some point they literally stopped responding to emails AND black listed my email and old address from purchasing tickets lol

[sarahb 17,188]

Can they do this sooner rather than later, there's a show in August I still wanna buy tickets for. Their 'platinum' priced tickets and their fees are insane.