Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell joined the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and a bipartisan coalition of 29 other state attorneys general in suing Live Nation Entertainment, Inc., which owns Ticketmaster.
“Our lawsuit today alleges that Live Nation’s anticompetitive conduct not only violates the law, but stifles innovation, including by forcing venues to solely use Ticketmaster or strategically acquiring venues in order to eliminate competition,” said AG Campbell. “Live Nation is extremely powerful in the live entertainment industry, and it has chosen to exploit that power to grow and maintain its monopoly, ultimately increasing prices for consumers and harming artists and venues in the process.”
According to the complaint, filed today in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Live Nation recognizes itself as the “largest live entertainment company in the world,” the “largest producer of live music concerts in the world,” and “the world’s leading live entertainment ticketing sales and marketing company.”
The company owns or controls more than 265 concert venues in North America, including House of Blues Boston, MGM Music Hall Fenway, Leader Bank Pavilion and Xfinity Center in Massachusetts. They conduct a majority of concert promotions across the country, manage more than 400 musical artists, and, through its wholly owned subsidiary, Ticketmaster, control roughly 80 percent or more of major concert venues’ primary ticketing for concerts.
AG Campbell, the DOJ, and coalition of states allege that Live Nation and Ticketmaster leverage this power to maintain and protect its monopoly in the live entertainment industry by:
- Forcing venues to agree to restrictive long-term agreements that require these venues to exclusively use Ticketmaster for ticketing;
- Threatening that venues will lose access to Live Nation-controlled tours and artists if they sign with a ticketer that is not Ticketmaster;
- Using its extensive network of amphitheaters to coerce artists into selecting Live Nation as a promoter instead of its rivals;
- Threatening rival promoters to attempt to prevent their entry into the United States market; and
- Serially and strategically acquiring promoters, venues and festivals to eliminate competition in the live entertainment industry.
In joining the DOJ’s complaint, AG Campbell is joined by the Attorneys General of Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
This matter was handled by Katherine Krems, Assistant Attorney General, Michael MacKenzie, Deputy Chief, and Will Matlack, Chief, all of AG Campbell’s Antitrust Division.
Original source can be found here.