Justice Department Sues Live Nation-Ticketmaster for
Monopolizing Markets Across the Live Concert Industry
Office of Public Affairs
Live Nation-Ticketmaster’s Exclusionary Conduct and
Dominance Across the Live Concert Ecosystem Harms
Fans, Innovation, Artists, and Venues
The Justice Department, along with 30 state and district
attorneys general, filed a civil antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation
Entertainment Inc. and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Ticketmaster LLC (Live
Nation-Ticketmaster) for monopolization and other unlawful conduct that thwarts
competition in markets across the live entertainment industry. The lawsuit,
which includes a request for structural relief, seeks to restore competition in
the live concert industry, provide better choices at lower prices for fans, and
open venue doors for working musicians and other performance artists.
The complaint, filed today in the
“We allege that Live Nation relies on unlawful,
anticompetitive conduct to exercise its monopolistic control over the live
events industry in the United States at the cost of fans, artists, smaller
promoters, and venue operators,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “The
result is that fans pay more in fees, artists have fewer opportunities to play
concerts, smaller promoters get squeezed out, and venues have fewer real
choices for ticketing services. It is time to break up Live
Nation-Ticketmaster.”
“Today’s announcement reflects the latest efforts by the
Justice Department to combat corporate misconduct,” said Deputy Attorney
General Lisa Monaco. “Our fight against corporate wrongdoing includes an
intense focus on anticompetitive conduct — which disadvantages consumers,
workers, and businesses of all kinds. Today’s complaint alleges that Live
Nation-Ticketmaster have engaged in anticompetitive conduct to cement their
dominance of the live concert market and act as the gatekeeper for an entire
industry. Today’s action is a step forward in making this era of live music
more accessible for the fans, the artists, and the industry that supports
them.”
“The Department is committed to competition throughout the
economy, including in live music,” said Acting Associate Attorney General
Benjamin C. Mizer. “As our complaint alleges, Live Nation-Ticketmaster
monopolizes the markets for concerts and other live events at the expense of
fans, venues, and artists across the country. The Department is proud to bring
this case to restore competition to this industry.”
“The live music industry in
According to the complaint, Live Nation-Ticketmaster has
unlawfully maintained monopolies in several concert promotions and primary
ticketing markets and engaged in other exclusionary conduct affecting live
concert venues, including arenas and amphitheaters. The complaint further
alleges that Live Nation-Ticketmaster’s exclusionary practices fortify and
protect what it refers to as its “flywheel.” The flywheel is Live
Nation-Ticketmaster’s self-reinforcing business model that captures fees and
revenue from concert fans and sponsorship, uses that revenue to lock up artists
to exclusive promotion deals, and then uses its powerful cache of live content
to sign venues into long term exclusive ticketing deals, thereby starting the
cycle all over again. Live Nation-Ticketmaster’s anticompetitive conduct
creates even more barriers for rivals to compete on the merits. Specifically,
Live Nation-Ticketmaster engaged in a variety of tactics to eliminate
competition and monopolize markets:
Relationship with Oak View Group: Live Nation-Ticketmaster
exploits its longtime relationship with Oak View Group, a potential
competitor-turned-partner that has described itself as a “hammer” and “protect[or]” for Live Nation. In recent years, Oak View
Group has avoided bidding against Live Nation for artist talent and influenced
venues to sign exclusive agreements with Ticketmaster. For example, Live Nation
has scolded Oak View Group multiple times for trying to compete. In one
instance, Live Nation asked, “who would be so stupid
to . . . play into [an artist agent’s] arms,” and on another occasion, Live
Nation stated, “let’s make sure we don’t let [the artist agency] now start
playing us off.”
Retaliating Against Potential Entrants:
Live Nation-Ticketmaster successfully threatened financial retaliation against
a firm unless it stopped one of its subsidiaries from competing to gain a
foothold in the
Threatening and Retaliating Against Venues that Work with
Rivals: Live Nation-Ticketmaster’s power in concert promotions means that every
live concert venue knows choosing another promoter or ticketer comes with a
risk of drawing an adverse reaction from Live Nation-Ticketmaster that would
result in losing concerts, revenue, and fans.
Locking Out Competition with Exclusionary Contracts: Live
Nation-Ticketmaster locks concert venues into long-term exclusive contracts so
that venues cannot consider or choose rival ticketers or switch to better or
more cost-effective ticketing technology.
These contracts allow Live Nation-Ticketmaster to reduce
competitive pressure to improve its own ticketing technology and customer
service.
Blocking Venues from Using Multiple Ticketers: Live
Nation-Ticketmaster’s conduct and exclusive contracts prevent new and different
promotions and ticketing competitors and business models from emerging. They
block venues from being able to use multiple ticketers, who would compete by
offering the best mix of prices, fees, quality, and innovation to fans.
Restricting Artists’ Access to Venues:
Live Nation-Ticketmaster has increasingly gained control of key venues,
including amphitheaters, through acquisitions, partnerships, and agreements.
Live Nation-Ticketmaster restricts artists’ use of those venues unless those
artists also agree to use their promotion services.
Acquiring Competitors and Competitive Threats: Live
Nation-Ticketmaster strategically acquired a number of smaller and regional
promoters that it had internally identified as threats. This has undermined
competition and impacted artist compensation.
Live Nation Entertainment Inc. is a
Ticketmaster LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of Live
Nation. It is a
Updated