Justice Department accuses Live Nation and Ticketmaster of operating unlawful monopoly that drives up prices for fans.
The Department of Justice in the United States has filed a sweeping antitrust lawsuit against Ticketmaster and parent company Live Nation Entertainment, accusing them of running an illegal monopoly and inflating ticket prices for concerts, shows and other events.
The lawsuit, filed in US federal court in Manhattan on Thursday, was brought with 30 state and district attorneys general and seeks to break up the monopoly they say is squeezing out smaller promoters and hurting artists.
“The live music industry in America is broken because Live Nation-Ticketmaster has an illegal monopoly,” Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter said in a statement.
“Our antitrust lawsuit seeks to break up Live Nation-Ticketmaster’s monopoly and restore competition for the benefit of fans and artists.”
For years, concert fans and politicians in the US have been calling for a re-examination of Live Nation’s purchase of Ticketmaster in 2010.
The situation drew widespread attention in 2022 after the ticket seller botched sales to Taylor Swift’s first concert tour in years, sending fans into hours-long online queues, charging prices that customers said were too high and drawing charges of poor service.
The debacle prompted…
