Federal prosecutors said Live Nation and Ticketmaster “illegally used their monopoly power to help themselves” instead of artists, fans, or venues during opening statements for the blockbuster antitrust trial.
The case, which has the potential to completely reshape the live-entertainment industry, officially kicked off Tuesday, March 3, following jury selection yesterday. The federal government has accused Live Nation of using its network of venues to cajole artists into using its promotion services, while also forcing venues to sign exclusive, long-term contracts with Ticketmaster (which it acquired in 2010).
“Today, the concert ticket industry is broken, in fact the concert industry itself is broken,” U.S. attorney David Dahlquist said during his opening statement (via The Guardian). “It is controlled by a monopolist. It is controlled by Live Nation.”
Live Nation has denied the allegations, and a lawyer for the company, David Marriott, insisted it “did not have monopoly power” during his opening statement. He argued instead that the live-entertainment “marketplace is more competitive than ever it has been before,” and asserted, “Every customer we get is a hard-fought battle in a competitive market” (via Law360).
The Department of Justice filed its lawsuit, and insisted Live Nation and Ticketmaster be broken up, in May 2024. In the nearly two years it’s taken for the case to reach trial, the government has skirted Live Nation’s efforts to toss the suit. But the scope of the DOJ’s claims has narrowed, thanks in large part to a pre-trial ruling in February. In that summary judgment, Judge Arun Subramanian dismissed claims that Live Nation has a monopoly over the concert promotion industry, and that its conduct has led to higher ticket prices.
But the judge did allow the DOJ’s two most significant claims to remain. First, that Live Nation illegally “ties” access to its myriad amphitheaters to its promotion services, meaning any artist that wants to play one of those venues has to use the company as a promoter. Second, the DOJ alleges that Live Nation illegally forces venues to sign long-term contracts with Ticketmaster, as opposed to other ticketing services, in part by threatening to keep popular tours from hitting venues that don’t use Ticketmaster.
In laying out the government’s case, Dahlquist referred to Live Nation’s so-called “flywheel,” a self-reinforcing business model that forces artists to engage with it at the level of venues, ticketing, and promotion. As for how Live Nation’s alleged monopoly affects fans, Dahlquist referenced the chaos that engulfed the on-sale for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour. Regarding the latter, he argued that Ticketmaster faced so little healthy competition, it had not bothered to make significant improvements to its technology.
The prosecutor also brought up Ticketmaster’s infamous fees, which he called “the highest they have ever been in the Untied States.” Dahlquist further told the jury that it would even see internal Live Nation messages mocking concertgoers, including one that stated Ticketmaster was “robbing them blind, baby.”
In setting up its counter to the government’s claims, Marriott insisted that Ticketmaster takes approximately five percent of ticket prices, and said it only owns a fraction of the more than 20,000 venues in the United States (many of which, especially arenas and stadiums, are owned by sports teams). As for ticketing, Marriott insisted there are “more ticketing options today” than ever before.
“We’ll let the numbers do the talking. We do not have monopoly power,” Marriott said (via The Associated Press). He later added that the company is “all about bringing joy to people’s lives.”
The Live Nation trial is expected to last about five to six weeks. The list of witnesses includes a pair of high-profile artists, including Kid Rock and Mumford & Sons’ Ben Lovett, as well as numerous high-powered execs, such as Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino.
There’s no immediate resolution in any of this. There’s no surrender either — and a lot of great escape. White’s slide guitar in “Dollar Bill” sounds like a National Steel on steroids until the solo, when it turns into what seems like a theremin gone postal. “I Can’t Believe What I’m Hearing” has a great pop-wise chorus closer to the Pretty Things than Son House. And don’t miss White’s wry aside to the White Stripes’ old creation myth in the second verse of “G.O.D.,” on the way to the real business at hand. “Well, it’s the beginning of the world now,” he declares at the song’s end. “Let’s do it all over again.”
