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Key Takeaways
- The U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday announced an antitrust lawsuit against Ticketmaster parent Live Nation Entertainment.
- The DOJ accuses Live Nation of threatening and retaliating against venues and artists for choosing ticket providers other than its subsidiary Ticketmaster, a condition the companies had to agree would not happen before their 2010 merger was approved.
- Live Nation has repeatedly denied allegations that it has monopoly power, saying Ticketmaster’s fees are no higher than other ticket sellers.
- Shares fell more than 6% as markets reacted to the lawsuit.
Ticketmaster parent Live Nation Entertainment’s (LYV) stock continued to slide Thursday as the U.S. Department of Justice announced an antitrust suit against the ticketing and concert giant.
The DOJ, along with attorneys general from 29 states and the District of Columbia, filed the suit against Live Nation on Thursday, accusing the company of using anticompetitive tactics to exert control over the live event industry.
A Bloomberg report Wednesday afternoon sent the stock lower in after-hours trading, similar to another drop the stock suffered last month when The Wall Street Journal reported that the lawsuit was being prepared.
DOJ Says Live Nation Uses Its Power to Hurt Venues, Artists, Consumers
“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,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said. “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.”
The government alleges that Live Nation uses its control over venues across the country to influence artists to perform at those it has a relationship with, along with intimidating venues and artists from choosing a ticketing and promotional service other than Ticketmaster.
The company’s dominant position in the industry allows Ticketmaster and Live Nation to charge excessively high prices and tack on a number of fees that make tickets prohibitively expensive for many consumers, the DOJ alleges.
To remedy the situation, the DOJ is seeking to break up Live Nation Entertainment, which consists of Live Nation as the venue operator and show promoter, along with Ticketmaster, which sells tickets. The DOJ approved a merger of the two companies in 2010 on several conditions, including that Live Nation would not retaliate against venues and artists for choosing ticket sellers other than Ticketmaster, a condition it said in the complaint that Live Nation has violated.
Live Nation Denies Claims, Says Low Margins Prove It’s Not a Monopoly
Live Nation has repeatedly denied that it operates as a monopoly or retaliates against or threatens venues, artists, or other smaller event promoters. In a lengthy response to the DOJ’s suit published Thursday, Live Nation said the DOJ is attempting to paint Ticketmaster as the sole reason ticket prices are high, when it says there are many more factors.
The company said Ticketmaster’s 5% commission rate is one of the lowest across any digital marketplace, pointing to higher fees from companies like Uber (UBER), Stubhub, and Apple’s (AAPL) App Store as evidence that it does not fit the definition of a monopoly that benefits from monopolistic prices.
Live Nation also referenced its relatively low profitability, especially compared to other tech giants the Biden administration has targeted in its antitrust push, including Meta Platforms (META), Apple, and Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL).
“Critically, Live Nation can offer and has offered fans, artists, venues and the rest of the performance ecosystem better prices and better services than they would receive if these complementary businesses were separated,” the company said. “Ticketmaster in particular is a far better, more artist- and fan-focused business under Live Nation’s ownership than it ever was as a standalone company.”
Live Nation shares fell 6.6% to $94.77 as of 12:45 p.m. ET Thursday.