U.S. Justice Department moves to break up Ticketmaster and Live Nation over antitrust violations

Good news for anyone who’s ever found themselves in the Ticketmaster trenches: The U.S. Justice Department seeks to break up Live Nation Entertainment, Ticketmaster’s parent company, over antitrust law violations.

The lawsuit, filed this morning (May 23), alleges that the music giant illegally controls a monopoly in live entertainment by engaging in long-term exclusive contracts with venues and threatening financial retribution against venues and artists who use Ticketmaster. It argues that these practices violate antitrust laws and drive up ticket prices. According to The New York Times, the lawsuit aims to break up the monopoly.

“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,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. “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.”

Live Nation denies that its practices violate antitrust laws.

Ticketmaster, the largest ticket-selling company in the country, merged with Live Nation in 2010. At the time, Ticketmaster operated roughly 70 percent of the concert ticket market in the U.S., and Live Nation was the world’s largest concert promoter.

The tides turned against Ticketmaster in 2022 when the site crashed during presale for Taylor Swift’s wildly popular Eras Tour. The company said it was overwhelmed by unprecedented demand for tickets and attacks by bots. But fans swiftly turned against the ticketing giant, which eventually led to the government getting involved.