LiveNation owns well over 300 venues worldwide and manages over 400 music acts, effectively monopolizing the live music scene in all metropolitan cities. LiveNation tacks on specious fees, often amounting to 70-80% the cost of the original ticket. LiveNation fails to stop bots and cyberattacks from swarming TicketMaster and flooding the resale market, gouging actual fans and concertgoers. LiveNation withholds touring music acts from playing at venues that don't use TicketMaster to handle their ticket sales, effectively abusing their power in the market and making shows less accessible. LiveNation takes a generous cut of artist merch sales, however, artists don't receive any cut of concession items sold at their shows. "'Live Nation’s net profit margin last fiscal year was 1.4% - nowhere near other DOJ targets in the tech sector,' the company said in a statement, noting Apple and Google – both subjects of the Justice Department’s antitrust lawsuits, have margins north of 24%." ?? So, because LiveNation is not the Jeffrey Dahmer of corporate should they not be held accountable for "lesser" crimes still committed? Quit deflecting.
The US government and dozens of states sued Live Nation in a groundbreaking antitrust lawsuit, alleging that for years the parent company of Ticketmaster abused its industry dominance to harm concertgoers nationwide. If successful, the case could lead to sweeping changes in the market for live events – an industry that came under intense scrutiny in 2022 after glitches at Ticketmaster blocked millions from purchasing tickets for Taylor Swift’s “Eras” tour. For many critics of Live Nation, the Swift debacle revealed how a lack of competition has led to harms ranging from poor customer service, confusing pricing and expensive ticketing fees to restrictions on ticket resales - amounting to what many consumers complain of as death by a thousand cuts.
