When trying to buy concert and sports tickets online, we face numerous obstacles, including sky-high prices and fees. In January, a Senate hearing investigating Ticketmaster hinted that we might see government antitrust action in an effort to bring relief to ticket buyers.
Months later, it’s happening. A federal lawsuit filed May 23 by the Department of Justice, 29 states and Washington, DC, alleges that Ticketmaster and its parent company, Live Nation Entertainment, unfairly dominate the live events industry and must be broken up.
“We allege that Live Nation relies on unlawful, anticompetitve 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 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.”
Ticketmaster doesn’t agree.
“Fans want to see the bands and sports teams they love, and it infuriates them that tickets sell out on Ticketmaster and are then available by the hundreds on secondary online sites at double and triple the cost,” Dan Wall, Live Nation’s executive vice-president of corporate and regulatory affairs, wrote in an online statement. “But the government has chosen to do nothing about this. Instead, it has filed a case which misleads the public into thinking that ticket prices will be lower if something is done about Live Nation and Ticketmaster.” The Department of Justice, Wall said, “is not helping consumers with their actual problems.”
Wall said the lawsuit won’t reduce ticket prices or service fees and that Ticketmaster’s market share has actually gone down since 2010. His statement alleges the lawsuit is a distraction from practical solutions such as allowing artists to set limits on resale ticket prices.
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But the government doesn’t see it that way.
“We’re here not because Ticketmaster’s conduct is inconvenient or frustrating … we’re here because it’s illegal,” Garland said during a press conference announcing the lawsuit. Live Nation has pushed back against claims of illegality and has said Live Nation and Ticketmaster don’t wield monopoly power.
At the moment, ticket buyers can’t do much but follow along as this high-profile case progresses. Here’s what’s happening, and how it may affect ticket prices and fees in the future.
The Department of Justice’s suit
A May 23 lawsuit filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York alleges that Live Nation and Ticketmaster monopolize the ticketing of live events in the US. The suit seeks to separate the companies.
According to the DOJ’s allegations, Live Nation-Ticketmaster:
- Has illegal monopolies involving concert promotions and primary ticketing markets.
- Engages in exclusionary conduct with live concert venues, meaning venues that don’t sign exclusive deals risk retaliation.
- Blocks venues from using multiple ticketers.
- Restricts artists’ access to venues unless they sign exclusive deals.
“The live-music industry in America is broken because Live Nation-Ticketmaster has an illegal monopoly,” Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter, who works in the DOJ’s Antitrust Division, alleged. “Our antitrust lawsuit seeks to break up Live Nation-Ticketmaster’s monopoly and restore competition for the benefit of fans and artists.”
Twenty-nine states and one district are involved in the DOJ lawsuit against Live Nation and Ticketmaster: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming and Washington, DC.
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Live Nation’s response
“Is the ticketing marketplace confusing to consumers? Yes, it certainly is,” Live Nation’s Dan Wall wrote. “And we have been very clear in the halls of Congress and at the DOJ that we favor genuine reforms that would actually help fans get tickets at the price the artist has set for them to pay.”
Wall argues that net profits show Live Nation and Ticketmaster aren’t monopolizing the ticket industry and that the company’s market share has declined since 2010 as other ticket platforms have come online. He pushes back at claims of illegality and says the DOJ lawsuit is a distraction from practical solutions such as allowing artists to determine limits on resale ticket prices. He also alleges the case is an attempt to make the company the scapegoat of the ticket industry’s problems.
“[The lawsuit] ignores everything that is actually responsible for higher ticket prices, from rising production costs, to artist popularity, to 24/7 online ticket scalping that reveals the public’s willingness to pay far more than primary ticket prices,” Wall wrote.
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Potential effect on ticket prices and fees
According to CNN, the case could take years, so ticket buyers may not see any changes for a while. But even when all is said and done, there’s no guarantee tickets will be cheaper. Part of the DOJ’s goal, of course, is to benefit the consumer through competition, but Live Nation’s Wall counters that ticket prices and fees won’t go down as a result of the lawsuit.
Read more: Taylor Swift Calls Ticketmaster Chaos ‘Excruciating’: Lessons From the Mess
What happens next
The DOJ lawsuit requests a jury trial, and a court date hasn’t yet been set.
This post will be updated as more information becomes available.
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