The real intent of Ticketmaster’s move to offer nontransferable tickets was to make it harder for fans to use rival platforms like StubHub and SeatGeek, alleges the recently updated complaint in the Justice Department’s antitrust lawsuit against Ticketmaster and its parent company Live Nation. complaintwhich was amended Monday after 10 states joined the Justice Department's lawsuit, cites internal Ticketmaster documents obtained during the legal process.
In 2019, Ticketmaster launched SafeTix, which replaced static barcodes on electronic tickets with encrypted barcodes that refresh every 15 seconds. Ticketmaster touted SafeTix as a way to reduce ticket fraud, but the complaint claims that reducing competition was “a primary motivation” for the new ticketing system.
A 2014 executive meeting document calls the “non-transferable digital ticket” “revolutionary.” At a meeting three years later, the rotating barcode was described as a “product enhancement ( ) for market share” and an opportunity to “REDUCE TM’S ECONOMIC RISK,” according to the complaint.
The amended complaint includes new information about Ticketmaster’s dominance in the events market. An internal Live Nation document cited in the complaint notes that Ticketmaster is the primary ticket issuer for approximately 80 percent of arenas nationwide that host NBA or NHL teams. In 2022, Live Nation-promoted events accounted for 70 percent of all arena shows nationwide, according to Live Nation internal events cited in the complaint.
The Justice Department alleges that because of Ticketmaster’s conduct, consumers “have paid and continue to pay more for fees related to tickets to live events than they would have paid in a free and open market.” The complaint states that the exact amount of monetary damages is not yet known and will require obtaining information from the accounting records of Ticketmaster and Live Nation, as well as their third-party competitors.
