According to the Wall Street Journal, the U.S. Department of Justice is preparing to file an antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation Entertainment and will file the lawsuit next month. The company will face scrutiny over accusations that it used its market dominance to harm consumers. Previously, the company’s subsidiary Ticketmaster faced huge resistance for handling Taylor Swift’s 2022 Eras tour.
Following the incident, Live Nation President and Treasurer Joe Berchtold testified before the Senate. Lawmakers grilled him over a lack of transparency about ticket costs and the company’s inability to stop bots from buying tickets. There has been strong bipartisan opposition to the company.
Read more: US Senate addresses Ticketmaster at hearing after Taylor Swift debacle
Concert ticket industry executive testifies before Senate
WASHINGTON, DC – JANUARY 24: (LR) Joe Berchtold, President and Chief Financial Officer, Live Nation Entertainment, Inc.; Jack Groetzinger, Chief Executive Officer, SeatGeek; Jerry Mickelson, Chief Executive Officer and President, Jam Productions; Sal Nuzzo ), senior associate president of the James Madison Institute; Kathleen Bradish, vice president of legal advocacy at the American Antitrust Institute; and singer/songwriter Clyde Lawrence in January 2023 He was sworn in at the Senate Judiciary Committee in Washington, DC on the 24th. The committee heard testimony titled “This Is the Ticket: Promoting Competition and Consumer Protection in Live Entertainment” after problems with tickets to Taylor Swift’s shows.
“The way your company handled Ms. Swift’s ticket sales is a disaster, and anyone in your company responsible for this should be fired,” Republican Senator John Kennedy said at the time. “If you care about consumers, lower the price.” Prices! Eliminate the robots! Eliminate the middlemen and give consumers a break if you really care about them!” Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar said: “To have a strong capitalist system , there has to be competition. You can’t have too much consolidation – unfortunately for the country, as an ode to Taylor Swift, I will say, we know ‘everything’s fine.
The Justice Department also previously accused Live Nation of bullying ticket-selling venues for using Ticketmaster in 2019.
READ MORE: Ticketmaster Could Face Multimillion-Dollar Fines After ‘Bad Bunny’ Concert Backlash
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