The US Justice Division instructed a federal decide that Reside Nation Leisure Inc. must be damaged up as a result of the corporate maintains a stranglehold over the reside occasions business, partly by freezing out venues that don’t use its Ticketmaster unit.
Venues that dumped Ticketmaster in favor of one other ticket vendor ended up dropping about 5 live shows a 12 months promoted by Reside Nation, which meant forfeiting a mixed whole of about $1.5 million in income, or greater than $300,000 per occasion, in keeping with the federal government, which sued the corporate in 2024.
New York’s Barclays Heart was among the many venues that “misplaced live shows because of switching from Ticketmaster to a rival ticketer,” Bonny Sweeney, a Justice Division lawyer, stated Friday at a courtroom listening to in Manhattan. She added that many venues declare Ticketmaster’s providers are inferior to these supplied by rivals.
Reside Nation, which merged with Ticketmaster in 2010, has denied claims that it operates an unlawful monopoly. It has requested US District Decide Arun Subramanian to toss the federal government’s lawsuit or resolve the case with out the necessity for a trial, which has been scheduled for March 2.
After listening to arguments from either side Friday, the decide didn’t say when he’d rule on the corporate’s request.
Reside Nation controls greater than 265 live performance venues in North America and manages greater than 400 musical artists, in keeping with the antitrust lawsuit filed by the Justice Division and a few 30 states. Reside Nation additionally controls about 87% of the live performance ticketing market by way of its Ticketmaster subsidiary and greater than 65% of the live performance promotion market, Sweeney instructed the decide on Friday.
Andrew Gass, a lawyer for Reside Nation, stated the federal government investigated the corporate for years however solely discovered eight alleged situations over 15 years the place Reside Nation threatened it will withhold live shows if a venue switched ticketing providers. The federal government additionally failed to indicate proof of hurt created by the corporate’s coverage requiring artists to make use of Reside Nation’s promotion providers at venues it owns, he stated.
The federal government “wants some precise proof these clients have been made worse off,” Gass stated.
The Justice Division argued that artists earned much less from reveals at Reside Nation-owned amphitheaters.
The corporate instructed its staff to not enhance artist ensures — the amount of cash it agrees to pay even when a live performance is canceled — since they’ve to make use of Reside Nation’s venues, authorities lawyer Lorraine Van Kirk stated. Reside Nation amphitheaters even have greater venue and repair charges than equally sized venues, usually forcing artists to scale back their ticket costs to keep away from having to cost followers extra, she stated.
The case is US v. Reside Nation, 24-cv-3973, US District Court docket, Southern District of New York .
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