“It is time to break up Live Nation-Ticketmaster. The American people are ready for it,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said.
Key to the monopolization lawsuit, according to the DOJ, is what Live Nation calls its “flywheel.”
“The flywheel is Live Nation-Ticketmaster’s self-reinforcing business model that captures fees and revenue from concert fans and sponsorship, uses that revenue to lock up artists to exclusive promotion deals, and then uses its powerful cache of live content to sign venues into long-term exclusive ticketing deals, thereby starting the cycle all over again,” the DOJ said in announcing the complaint. “Live Nation-Ticketmaster’s anticompetitive conduct creates even more barriers for rivals to compete on the merits.”
Live Nation, which the DOJ says brings in over $22 billion in global annual revenues, responded Thursday by arguing the lawsuit “won’t solve the issues fans care about relating to ticket prices, service fees, and access to in-demand shows.”
“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,” the company said in a statement.
