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Will the Justice Department's lawsuit against Ticketmaster and Live Nation springiness concertgoers, sports instrumentality and theatre patrons immoderate alleviation from surging summons prices?
The suit could perchance pb to a breakup of Live Nation Entertainment, a institution that resulted from Ticketmaster's 2010 merger with performance promoter Live Nation. Attorney General Merrick Garland said the purpose is to let much contention and to fto smaller players summation much of the U.S. ticket-selling marketplace - which Ticketmaster controls a whopping 70% of.
More contention could pb to cheaper tickets. But experts accidental unrecorded lawsuit lovers shouldn't expect changes immoderate clip soon.
What happened?
The Justice Department connected Thursday accused Live Nation of engaging successful a slew of practices that person allowed it to support a stronghold implicit the unrecorded euphony scene. They accused it of utilizing semipermanent contracts to support venues from choosing rival ticketers, blocking venues from utilizing aggregate summons sellers and threatening venues that they could suffer wealth and fans if they don't take Ticketmaster.
Does Taylor Swift person thing to bash with this?
The uproar that resulted from a myriad of problems Swifties encountered portion trying to bargain tickets done Ticketmaster for the popular star's Eras Tour successful 2022 shined a airy connected cracks successful the U.S. ticketing system.
State attorneys wide - 30 of whom person joined the Justice Department's suit - started probing Ticketmaster. The wide societal media outcry adjacent led to a Senate hearing.
Eleanor Fox, prof emeritus astatine the NYU School of Law, said the debacle of an amusement elephantine appearing incapable of servicing an anxious assemblage mightiness person helped the Justice Department physique its lawsuit by making the standard of Ticketmaster's domination much apparent.
"I mean, you tin accidental it was bonzer that determination was truthful overmuch request (and that is what led to problems), but they knew it was going to beryllium bonzer determination was truthful overmuch demand," Fox said. "When you person competition, the companies are much delicate and responsive to problems that tin travel up."
Why are summons prices truthful high?
Ticket prices person gone up for aggregate reasons, including a immense surge successful request aft the COVID-19 pandemic.
Live Nation reported past period that worldwide summons income for the apical 100 tours successful 2023 jumped 46% compared with the erstwhile year, bringing successful $9.17 cardinal successful sales. Attendance astatine Live Nation-produced events jumped 20% to a staggering 145 cardinal past year.
According to commercialized work Pollstar, the mean summons terms from the 100 apical tours successful 2023 was $122.84, which was 17% higher than the twelvemonth earlier and a 31% summation compared to the mean terms successful 2018.
And arsenic anyone who has tried to people tickets to a fashionable lawsuit knows, work fees and summons resales tin propulsion prices up overmuch higher, successful immoderate cases into the thousands of dollars.
The Justice Department's suit alleges that having a elephantine institution similar Live Nation Entertainment exacerbates markups since it controls truthful overmuch of the market.
What does Ticketmaster say?
Live Nation and Ticketmaster which person agelong clashed with artists and fans, person ever denied they enactment successful a monopolistic manner. They accidental they aren't to blasted for precocious summons prices. They said Thursday that the DOJ's suit "won't lick the issues fans attraction astir relating to summons prices, work fees, and entree to in-demand shows." They accidental work fees spell to performance venues and that extracurricular contention has "steadily eroded" Ticketmaster's marketplace share.
What happens next?
Unless it is dismissed, the suit Thursday kicked disconnected what is apt to beryllium a agelong trial. The proceedings mightiness instrumentality a twelvemonth to commence, and past determination would beryllium months of arguments earlier a justice issues a ruling, NYU School of Law's Fox said.
"And particularly if the justice orders a breakup, there's going to beryllium an appeal," she added. "So you are looking astatine years."
Are determination different lawsuits against monopolies ongoing?
The authorities has respective ongoing lawsuits accusing large companies of engaging successful amerciable monopolies that container retired competitors and thrust up prices.
In March, the Justice Department sued Apple, accusing the tech elephantine of engineering an amerciable monopoly successful the smartphone market.
Earlier this month, closing arguments were made successful a suit against Google that dates from the Trump administration. Federal prosecutors accused the tech elephantine of maintaining a monopoly presumption arsenic a hunt engine.
In September, the Federal Trade Commission sued Amazon, alleging the e-commerce behemoth abuses its presumption successful the marketplace to inflate prices connected and disconnected its platform, overcharge sellers and stifle competition. Amazon asked for the suit to beryllium dismissed successful December, but a justice acceptable a proceedings day for October 2026.
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