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The Justice Department is widening its antitrust crackdown as it goes after Live Nation (LYV), filing a lawsuit on Thursday that seeks to dissolve the entertainment giant.
U.S. attorneys and a group of states argue that Live Nation used its Ticketmaster ticketing monopoly to suppress competition. The lawsuit follows a two-year investigation into the company.
The lawsuit comes 14 years after the DOJ approved a merger between Live Nation and Ticketmaster. Ticketmaster is a dominant provider of ticket sales in the US, processing more than 80% of sales, while Live Nation owns and operates hundreds of high-profile venues and is a concert promoter giant.
The combined company has long faced criticism over what lawmakers and regulators consider exorbitant fees, problematic customer service and unfair practices.
Live Nation shares fell about 5% when the lawsuit was filed in the Southern District of New York.
“Live Nation relies on illegal and anticompetitive conduct to exert its monopolistic control over the live events industry in the United States at the expense of fans, artists, small promoters and venue operators,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. cited by several media outlets.
“The result is that fans pay more fees, artists have fewer opportunities to play shows, smaller promoters are priced out, and venues have fewer real options for ticketing services,” Garland added. “It’s time to break up Live Nation.”
Live Nation immediately refuted the lawsuit, calling the allegations “baseless.”
“The DOJ’s complaint attempts to portray Live Nation and Ticketmaster as the cause of fan frustration with the live entertainment industry,” said Dan Wall, Live Nation’s executive vice president for corporate and regulatory affairs.
“It blames concert promoters and ticket companies—neither of which control ticket prices—for high ticket prices. It ignores everything that is actually responsible for higher ticket prices, from rising production costs to the popularity of artists, to the 24/7 online ticket scalping that reveals the public’s willingness to pay much more than the cost of primary tickets.”