The United States Department of Justice and 30 state attorneys general filed a lawsuit against Live Nation Entertainment, parent company of Ticketmaster, for alleged monopolistic practices.
Live Nation and Ticketmaster merged in 2010, creating a dominant entertainment machine that controls the majority of ticket sales and venue bookings in the country. But Taylor Swift fans' experience purchasing tickets for the Eras tour in late 2022 was so horrible that lawmakers took a closer look at the entertainment giant's control over the industry: The pre-sale was plagued by technical glitches and downtime. Hour-long wait, while the public sale was canceled due to high traffic.
“Live Nation stifles its competition using a variety of tactics, from acquisitions of promoters and smaller regional venues, to threats and retaliation to deals with rivals,” US Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a news conference on Thursday.
This isn't just a Swiftie problem; rather, the pop star's cultural ubiquity shed more light on the frustrations people have with Live Nation-Ticketmaster. From punk bands to podcast hosts, bad experiences with Ticketmaster have made the company repugnant to fans. In April, when the real-life Dungeons & Dragons show, Dimension 20, went on sale for its Madison Square Garden performance, Ticketmaster's dynamic pricing structure made ticket prices so astronomically high that they were unaffordable. for most fans. Dropout, the company that produces Dimension 20, later stated that dynamic pricing, which automatically increases ticket prices based on demand, was not explained to them prior to ticket sales.
Live Nation Executive Vice President Dan Wall posted a statement responding to the allegations in the Justice Department's lawsuit.
“The complaint, and even more so the press conference announcing it, attempts to portray Live Nation and Ticketmaster as the cause of fans' frustration with the live entertainment industry,” the statement said. “Blame concert promoters and ticketing companies (neither of which control ticket prices) for high ticket prices. It ignores everything that's really responsible for rising ticket prices, from rising production costs to artists' popularity to 24/7 online ticket sales. week, which reveals the public's willingness to pay much more than what the primary tickets cost.”
Wall goes on to compare Ticketmaster's 5% acceptance rate to that of companies like Twitch (50%), StubHub (37%), Uber (25%), and several others. But with the exception of StubHub, a reselling platform, the comparisons are not entirely one-to-one. Ticketmaster also charges various types of service fees, which exceed 5%. The fact is, it's difficult for younger companies to disrupt Live Nation's control over the industry, since the vast majority of American venues do business with them.
Garland says public frustration with Live Nation's alleged monopolistic behavior is more acute in the United States than in other countries.
“In other countries, where venues are not subject to Ticketmaster's exclusive ticketing contracts, venues often use multiple ticketing companies for the same event and, as a result, fans see lower rates and products. more innovative ticketing systems,” Garland said.
