DOJ Reportedly Opens Antitrust Investigation Into Ticketmaster’s Owner

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has opened an antitrust investigation into Ticketmaster’s owner, according to a New York Times report(Opens in a new window).

The inquiry, which predates the chaotic pre-sale of Taylor Swift concert tickets this week, will look at whether Live Nation Entertainment has abused its power over the multibillion-dollar live music industry. The company was founded after subsidiary Ticketmaster merged with Live Nation in 2010.

Ticketmaster came under the spotlight this week after a widely reported ticket pre-sale fiasco for the US leg of Swift’s Eras Tour. Its site crashed as thousands of fans were left in line, subsequently failing to secure tickets. A planned public sale of tickets was then canceled(Opens in a new window) due to “insufficient remaining ticket inventory.” The tickets, which cost between $49 and $499 each, were quickly listed on reseller websites for as much as $22,000(Opens in a new window), according to The Guardian.

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Parent company LiveNation attributed the chaotic situation to “historically unprecedented demand” for the 52-date US tour. 

Quoting two people with intimate knowledge of the investigation, the Times reports that the inquiry will broadly assess whether Live Nation maintains a monopoly over the industry. After Ticketmaster’s merger with Live Nation in 2010, the DOJ reached a ten-year legal settlement with the company that blocked Live Nation from threatening concert venues with missing out on access to its tours if those venues optioned to use competing ticket providers. 

In late 2019, the DOJ found(Opens in a new window) that Live Nation had in fact violated the agreement, and extended its terms through to 2025. According to the Times, staff at the DOJ have asked the company whether it is complying with the agreement as part of the new investigation.

In a statement(Opens in a new window) posted to its website, the entertainment company responded to the inquiry saying that it “takes its responsibilities under the antitrust laws seriously”, adding that it “does not engage in behaviors that could justify antitrust litigation, let alone orders that would require it to alter fundamental business practices.”

It defended its monopoly on the primary ticket market by saying there was a “large gap” between the “quality of the Ticketmaster system and the next best primary ticketing system. The market is increasingly competitive nonetheless, with rivals making aggressive offers to venues”, it added.

Lawmakers have repeated calls for Live Nation Entertainment to be broken up. In a scathing tweet(Opens in a new window), Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said: “Daily reminder that Ticketmaster is a monopoly, its merger with Live Nation should never have been approved, and they need to be reigned [sic] in. Break them up.”

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Taylor Swift made her first comments on the debacle on Friday. Commenting on Instagram, the singer wrote(Opens in a new window) that it was “excruciating” to watch fans struggle to obtain tickets for her tour, which kicks off in March next year. Swift added that she and her team had been “assured” by Ticketmaster that they could handle high demand and that she was looking into how the situation could be improved.

Federal agencies and lawmakers have upped their focus on monopolization and anti-competitive practices in recent months. The Federal Trade Commission opened an investigation into Amazon’s planned acquisition of iRobot in September. And earlier this month Elizabeth Warren called for federal agencies to better regulate(Opens in a new window) Big Tech expansion into the automotive industry.