The Justice Department accuses Live Nation of a slew of"unlawful, anticompetitive" practices that allow it to maintain a stronghold over the live music scenehas filed an antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation Entertainment, accusing the world's largest concert promoter and ticketing company of running an illegal monopoly and calling to break up its merger with Ticketmaster.
It also claims that Live Nation has continued violate its consent decree conditions by stumping out other concert-promotion businesses through threats of retaliation or by acquiring startups it saw at potential competitors.“The live music industry in America is broken because Live Nation-Ticketmaster has an illegal monopoly,” said Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division.
"The DOJ's lawsuit won't solve the issues fans care about relating to ticket prices, service fees, and access to in-demand shows," Live Nation said."Calling Ticketmaster a monopoly may be a PR win for the DOJ in the short term, but it will lose in court because it ignores the basic economics of live entertainment, such as the fact that the bulk of service fees go to venues, and that competition has steadily eroded Ticketmaster’s market share and profit margin.
Live Nation has previously defended its fees and ticket pricing, saying"promoters don't set prices, artists do."
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