A coalition of 41 states and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is suing Live Nation and Ticketmaster in an effort to win additional relief for consumers harmed by the companies.
“Live Nation and Ticketmaster have abused the market to overcharge consumers and harm venues and artists, and my office will ensure this illegal conduct is stopped,” said New York Attorney General Letitia James. “It’s time for a new era where fans, venues, and artists are not taken advantage of by big corporations that run the world of live events.”
In May 2024, the AGs sued Live Nation and Ticketmaster for controlling almost every aspect of live events, from promotions to venues and ticket sales, and abusing their market dominance to overcharge consumers, limit artists, and restrict venues not owned by Live Nation from working with other ticketing vendors.
Today’s amended complaint seeks monetary damages for Americans harmed by Live Nation and Ticketmaster.
Live Nation is a live entertainment company that owns, operates, or has exclusive booking rights for hundreds of venues nationwide, including New York’s Madison Square Garden, Radio City Hall, Barclays Center, and other venues.
The original lawsuit alleged that Live Nation controls many aspects of sports events and live performances, from producing and promoting events to renting venues they own and selling tickets through its subsidiary, Ticketmaster, which accounts for nearly 80 percent of the ticketing industry.
Due to Live Nation’s wide-ranging control of various aspects of the live events industry, competitors have been forced out, leaving consumers, venues, and artists with limited options and forcing them to endure high costs.
“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,” said U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland when the original lawsuit was filed in May 2024.
“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 ‘flywheel’
The complaint alleges that Live Nation-Ticketmaster’s exclusionary practices fortify and protect what it refers to as its “flywheel.”
The flywheel is Live Nation-Ticketmaster’s self-reinforcing business model that captures fees and revenue from concert fans and sponsorship, uses that revenue to lock up artists to exclusive promotion deals, and then uses its powerful cache of live content to sign venues into long term exclusive ticketing deals, thereby starting the cycle all over again.
Live Nation-Ticketmaster’s anticompetitive conduct creates even more barriers for rivals to compete on the merits, the suit argues.
