Back in April 2018, The New York Times reported that the Department of Justice is reviewing complaints that Live Nation has used its industry-wide control in producing concert tours to pressure venues into contracting with its subsidiary, Ticketmaster. At the time, New York Attorney General’s Antitrust Bureau claimed Live Nation was “The poster child for the problems that arise when enforcers adopt these temporary fixes to limit the anticompetitive effects of deeply problematic vertical mergers,” in reference to the promoter’s controversial merger with Ticketmaster in 2010.
On Friday, The Wall Street Journal shared a report stating U.S. Justice Department is supposedly in preparation mode to pursue legal action against the giant concert promoter alleging violations of antitrust consent decrees by Live Nation, and that the company has “Sought to strong-arm concert venues into using its dominant Ticketmaster subsidiary.”
Related: Live Nation Announces 2020 Lawn Pass For Unlimited Admission At 29 Venues
The source for the report tells The Wall Street Journal says the lawsuit claims Live Nation violated the merger settlement which the promoter and Ticketmaster reached with the Obama-era Justice Department in 2010. The terms of the government-sponsored settlement permitted the two major live music companies to combine, as long as both parties agreed to abide by conditions designed to keep consumer prices in check by preserving competition in the music and ticketing industries. In other words, the merger settlement was meant to prohibit Live Nation and Ticketmaster for using their partnership to establish monopolistic practices within the live entertainment industry and bully their way to the top.
That merger agreement between Live Nation, Ticketmaster, and the Justice Department is due to expire in 2020, and the Justice Department is planning to ask a federal judge to extend the restrictions by several years in hopes of preventing what they’re claiming is “coercive conduct” from Live Nation.
The report points out that ticket prices have skyrocketed in the last nine years since the major merger, as overall costs have increased by nearly 50% since 2009 to an average of $92.42 for the top 100 tours worldwide.
Earlier this year, Live Nation Chief Executive Michael Rapino acknowledged the company’s competitors like AEG Live have raised flags to the Justice Department, but followed that up with, “We have no fear that we have any systematic issues. We’re very compliant.”
Earlier this year it was also reported that Live Nation had teamed up with notable bands like Metallica to covertly release large numbers of concert tickets directly to secondary market ticketing sites like StubHub without first giving fans the opportunity to purchase them through official channels at face value.
This story is ongoing.
[H/T The Wall Street Journal]