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The US Division of Justice is making ready to sue Reside Nation Leisure, the mum or dad firm of Ticketmaster, for breaking antitrust legal guidelines.
In line with a report from the Wall Street Journal, the US Division of Justice is accusing Reside Nation Leisure of utilizing its affect over the reside occasion house to actively hurt competitors. The lawsuit has not but been filed and neither Reside Nation nor the Justice Division have offered touch upon the matter.
Has Reside Nation been in hassle earlier than?
Reside Nation and the federal authorities of the USA have not precisely had one of the best relationship over the previous few years. In 2023, the Senate Everlasting Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI) issued a subpoena to Live Nation Entertainment and its subsidiary Ticketmaster, demanding paperwork associated to ticket pricing, charges, and resale practices.
The PSI’s probe was initially launched in March following widespread criticism of Ticketmaster’s dealing with of ticket gross sales for concert events by Taylor Swift and Bruce Springsteen. In each instances, followers have been met with exorbitant charges and technical glitches that made it practically unattainable to buy tickets. These incidents, together with Ticketmaster’s dominant place within the reside leisure market, have raised considerations concerning the firm’s use of monopoly energy to gouge shoppers.
Reside Nation Leisure was additionally sued in 2023 over antitrust legal guidelines by a gaggle of shoppers, however won the lawsuit thanks to their their Terms And Conditions. The antitrust lawsuit was filed in Ninth Circuit Courtroom of Appeals and was dominated towards by a decide, who stated the lawsuit belongs in arbitration reasonably than in court docket.
In 2022, Congressman Invoice Pascrell, Democratic consultant for New Jersey’s 9th congressional district, known as for Reside Nation Leisure to be damaged up over security and monopolization considerations. Pascrell initially wrote to the Federal Commerce Fee (FTC) in March of that yr saying that mergers needs to be simpler to overturn, and that the 2010 merger between Reside Nation and Ticketmaster was each unhealthy for competitors and precipitated a lapse in security measurements at occasions.
“The union of Reside Nation and Ticketmaster is a posterchild of consolidation gone unhealthy,” stated Pascrell in his letter. “When Reside Nation, the nation’s largest live performance promoter, and Ticketmaster, the most important ticket supplier sought to mix, they assured regulators that their fusion would promote competitors within the reside occasions market. A number of members of Congress, together with myself, vocally disagreed. We virtually begged President Obama‘s administration to cease the deal.”
Pascrell cited tragedies like Travis Scott‘s Astroworld Competition, the place 10 folks died and a whole lot have been accidents as crowds acquired uncontrolled. Regardless of the incidents, Reside Nation Leisure has solely continued to develop financially.
Mark Perry of American Enterprise Institute penned an identical letter revealed by The Hill, saying that Reside Nation Leisure presently owns 70% market share of the live performance ticket market and 80% of ticket distribution for stadiums and arenas in the USA. Perry concluded his letter, saying “With reside occasions again, Washington mustn’t miss this chance to repair what’s damaged in reside occasion ticketing.”
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