The Justice Department and several states are expected to file a lawsuit as soon as Thursday against Live Nation Inc, citing alleged antitrust violations at least in part due to the market dominance of the company’s Ticketmaster unit, a person briefed on the planned legal action said.
A successful antritrust case could potentially 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 to confusing pricing to expensive ticketing fees to restrictions on ticket resales — amounting to what many consumers complain of as death by a thousand cuts.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
