Justice Department to sue Ticketmaster owner Live Nation in antitrust lawsuit

Live Nation slammed by Taylor Swift and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez after it botched pre-sale for singer’s ‘Eras Tour’

The Department of Justice is reportedly planning to sue Live Nation, parent company of Ticketmaster, over claims that the live event promoter has violated antitrust laws.

The potential lawsuit was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

Live Nation and Ticketmaster merged in 2010, creating a live event promoter monolith that dwarfed all competition.

Ticketmaster controls more than 80 per cent of the market for primary ticket sales in the United States. It maintains that control by striking deals with the nation’s largest venues, ensuring that any events held are ticketed through their company.

The company has faced ongoing complaints about high ticket prices, fees, and reports of customer service failures. In November 2022, its site crashed during the presale of Taylor Swift's "Eras Tour".

Swift said she was furious that her fans “felt like they had to go through several bear attacks” to secure their tickets from Ticketmaster, and that the lack of recourse for the company’s blunder frustrated her.

Taylor Swift pictured onstage in February in Japan. She condemned Live Nation after tech failures impeded her fans from buying tickets for her ‘Eras Tour’ (REUTERS)

"It's really difficult for me to trust an outside entity with these [fan] relationships and loyalties, and excruciating for me to just watch mistakes happen with no recourse," Swift said.

The incident went viral on social media and caught the attention of Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who called out the company for allegedly acting to prevent competition.

"Daily reminder that Ticketmaster is a monopoly, it’s merger with LiveNation should never have been approved, and they need to be reigned in," she wrote on Twitter. "Break them up."

Now it seems that the Department of Justice may be trying to do just that.

Live Nation and Ticketmaster have gone on the defensive over the last several weeks. Dan Wall, Live Nation's corporate affairs boss, argued in an essay that ticket prices are set by the artists, not the company.

A Ticketmaster spokesman also told the Wall Street Journal that the company has plenty of competition — more than ever before, she claims.

“Ticketmaster has more competition today than it has ever had, and the deal terms with venues show it has nothing close to monopoly power,” the spokesman said.

The upcoming lawsuit may be tied to a settlement agreement that Live Nation made with the DOJ in 2010 as a result of the merger. Live Nation entered into a 10 year agreement with the DOJ that was supposed to keep the company from becoming a monopoly. It required Live Nation to provide its ticketing software to AEG Live, it’s closest competition in the market, and prohibited the company from retaliating against venues who sold tickets through other vendors.

In 2019 the deal was only extended to 2025 after an investigation by antitrust enforcers found that Live Nation violated the agreement by reportedly bullying vendors into solely using Ticketmaster.