On November 18, Live Nation-Ticketmaster filed a motion for summary judgment in the federal and state antitrust lawsuit against the company. The case was brought in 2024 by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) under the Biden administration and 40 state attorneys general. Plaintiffs in the landmark Sherman Act case allege that Live Nation-Ticketmaster uses its monopoly power in primary ticketing services for major venues, concert promotion, and venue management to stifle competition, harming consumers, rival concert promoters, and artists.
If successful, the DOJ’s case would bring tangible relief to millions of U.S. music fans, many of whom take a keen interest in the case that even extends to grassroots mobilization efforts to support it. The most likely remedy is breaking off Ticketmaster, the dominant ticketing platform in the U.S., from Live Nation, which is equally dominant in concert promotion and venue management. This would eliminate the company’s supercharged incentives to use its monopoly power across markets in the live events supply chain to foreclose competition in primary ticketing.
By wielding its power, the live events behemoth continues to hobble competition, including smaller primary ticketers and resale ticketing services. The reality is that consumers have virtually no choice in primary ticketing providers. As a result, they pay monopoly ticket fees and are captive to Live Nation-Ticketmaster’s outdated and glitchy technology. Consumers desperately need relief from its anticompetitive conduct to lower ticket fees, get better quality service, and improve access to live entertainment.
Live Nation-Ticketmaster’s motion seeks to convince Judge Arun Subramanian of the Southern District of New York that the evidence produced in the case doesn’t support the government’s claim. If so, the judge can decide it now, as a matter of law, without a trial. But Live Nation-Ticketmaster’s “nothing to see here” routine doesn’t hold much water, for reasons that range from the 10,000-foot view to the nitty-gritty of law and economics.
