14 years after the Justice Department greenlit the merger between Ticketmaster Entertainment and Live Nation, letting two major players in the live entertainment industry join forces, the DOJ is trying to turn back the clock. On Thursday, the Justice Department, along with 30 state and district attorneys general, against Live Nation Entertainment and its wholly-owned subsidiary Ticketmaster, seeking to break up the live entertainment monolith.
鈥淲e 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,鈥 Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a statement. 鈥淭he 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.鈥
Live Nation鈥檚 dominant market position is a result of vertical integration and strategic acquisitions, most notably the merger with Ticketmaster in 2010. Over the years, the company also acquired numerous regional promoters, venue operators and artist management firms, enhancing its global footprint and consolidating the company鈥檚 control over the entire value chain of live entertainment.
Whatever the company is doing, whether legal or illegal, it appears to be working. Since 2009, the last year before the Ticketmaster merger, Live Nation鈥檚 revenue from concerts and ticketing has grown more than fivefold, reaching $21.7 billion in 2023. Interestingly, the devastating effects of Covid-19 pandemic, which brought the live entertainment industry to its knees in 2020 and parts of 2021, were very short-lived for Live Nation, which was big enough to survive and profit from pent-up demand in 2022 and 2023, both record years for the concert industry.
Unsurprisingly, Live Nation Entertainment the allegations brought forward by the DOJ, claiming that the lawsuit follows 鈥渋ntense political pressure鈥 on the DOJ and long-term lobbying from its competitors. In blaming concert promoters and ticketing companies for high prices, the complaint 鈥渋gnores everything that is actually responsible for higher ticket prices,鈥 the company argues, citing rising production costs, artist popularity and 鈥24/7 online ticket scalping鈥 as the main drivers of ticket price increases. The company goes on to call the allegations of monopolistic behavior 鈥渁bsurd鈥, claiming that the DOJ鈥檚 latest actions against 鈥渄ominant platform companies鈥 is not 鈥渁nti-monopoly鈥 but 鈥渁nti-business鈥.
