Department of Justice Reportedly Planning To Sue Live Nation

The Department of Justice (DOJ) is allegedly planning to sue Live Nation on antitrust grounds. In 2022, the company faced some backlash from lawmakers and consumer advocacy groups when a Ticketmaster crash blocked thousands of Taylor Swift fans from purchasing tickets for the Eras Tour due to "unprecedented demand." The New York Times reported that the DOJ opened an investigation into the company shortly after.

In 2010, Live Nation acquired Ticketmaster. According to Axios, the DOJ at the time didn't sue to block the deal but "barred" the company from pressuring concert venues to use its ticketing software through a legal order called "consent decree." They mentioned that the ten-year consent decree was extended for more than five years in 2020. They revised the settlement to include an anti-retaliation clause that would subject the company to a $1 million penalty each time should it threaten to withhold shows if a venue sold tickets through a company other than Ticketmaster.

Fox Business reported that critics at the time said the "stipulations would drive-up ticket costs for consumers instead of lowering them, fearing the concert promoter Live Nation, which already owned or ran 135 major concert venues around the world at the time, would pressure those venues into exclusively using its new ticketing arm."

The Wall Street Journal broke the news of a possible lawsuit earlier this week. They reported that the DOJ could file a suit as soon as next month.

Last month, in a blog post, the company tried to counter the narrative that it’s responsible for inflated ticket pricing, saying that tickets "are actually priced by artists and teams." They continued, "It's their show, they get to decide what it costs to get in.  The NFL tickets on Ticketmaster were priced by the home teams, concert tickets were priced by the performer’s business teams, Monster Jam tickets were priced by its producer (Feld Entertainment), and so forth."

Some people have said that a lawsuit would ultimately result in a settlement. Axios mentioned that this could be a possibility "given that the government's complaint reportedly won't target the company's fundamental business model, but rather some of its business practices."

Recently, the DOJ sued Apple for monopolizing smartphone markets. The suit aims to show how Apple allegedly molds its technology and business relationships to "extract more money from consumers, developers, content creators, artists, publishers, small businesses, and merchants, among others."

The DOJ has sued Google multiple times since 2020. Earlier this year, they sued Google for monopolizing digital advertising technologies.