The debacle led to a hearing in the US Senate on consolidation in the ticketing industry. In May, the U.S. Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit to break up Ticketmaster and Live Nation, accusing it of abusing their alleged ticket monopoly to crush competitors.
In a statement provided to WIRED at the time, Live Nation disputed the claim. “The DOJ's lawsuit will not resolve the issues fans care about regarding ticket prices, service fees and access to in-demand shows,” the company wrote. “Calling Tickmaster a monopoly may be a short-term PR win for the DOJ, but it will lose in court because it ignores the fundamental economics of live entertainment, such as the fact that the majority of service fees go to venues , and that competition has steadily eroded Ticketmaster's market share and profit margin.”
The original lawsuit, filed by Swift fans, accused Ticketmaster and Live Nation of breach of contract, fraud, misrepresentation and antitrust violations. The complaint alleges that Ticketmaster reneged on its promise to make tickets available to fans who were eligible for pre-sale. Meanwhile, by entering into exclusivity contracts with major venues and forcing fans to resell tickets through its own resale marketplace, Ticketmaster has established a monopoly that it uses to inflate ticket prices for its own financial gain.
“This case concerns Ticketmaster's anticompetitive conduct in imposing higher prices on music concert attendees in the presale, sales and resale markets,” the complaint said. “Ticketmaster has accomplished this anti-competitive scheme by forcing fans of musicians to use Ticketmaster solely for pre-sales and retail prices, which are higher than what would be a competitive market price.”
The new lawsuit is nearly identical to the original federal case, but expands its scope to include fans of artists other than Taylor Swift and adds an alleged RICO violation to the list. The new allegation is based on the premise that Ticketmaster and Live Nation are working with partner organizations to exert market dominance and pressure consumers in a manner that meets the definition of an “enterprise” under the RICO Act.
“Live Nation and Ticketmaster exploit the relationship between themselves and with stadium venues majority owned by Live Nation to further the ends of their business, and have done so since the Department of Justice wrongly approved their merger for nearly a decade and a half. suffered,” the complaint said.
