An electronic ticket from the Ticketmaster platform (GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/JOE RAEDLE)
The American Department of Justice on Thursday sued the live entertainment giant Live Nation Entertainment, which it accuses of anti-competitive practices in the organization of concerts as well as ticketing via its subsidiary Ticketmaster.
Live Nation’s methods “allow it to exercise monopolistic control over the live entertainment industry in the United States,” said Justice Minister Merrick Garland, quoted in a press release published Thursday.
“The result is that fans pay higher fees, artists have fewer opportunities to perform, smaller promoters are kept out, and venues have fewer ticketing choices,” he said. he continued.
Live Nation Entertainment is the entity created from the merger between concert promoter Live Nation and Ticketmaster in 2010.
“The time has come to split Live Nation and Ticketmaster,” argued Merrick Garland.
The largest player in live entertainment in the world, the group achieved, in 2023, a turnover of 22.7 billion dollars.
It says it organized more than 50,000 events last year, which attracted more than 145 million spectators.
Live Nation owns, manages, is a shareholder in or has exclusive contracts with 373 venues worldwide, according to its annual report.
For Deputy Minister Lisa Monaco, this company seeks, illegally, to “cement its domination of the concert market and behave like the guardian of an entire industry”.
The government accuses the group in particular of having threatened competitors in the promotion of concerts, but also venues that worked with rivals of Live Nation, according to the summons filed in federal court in Manhattan.
Also denounced as anti-competitive are the numerous exclusivity contracts that Live Nation has negotiated with venues and stadiums, which require them to use Ticketmaster for ticketing.
The Department of Justice also mentions the obligation for artists to use promotion and ticketing services when they perform in a venue controlled by Live Nation.
– “Too much concentration” –
The company argued that there was no basis for the lawsuit, which it said was the result of “intense political pressure and a lobbying campaign by its rivals and ticket resellers.” .
“The world is better thanks to this merger (between Live Nation and Ticketmaster), not worse,” insisted the group in a press release.
Ticketmaster’s dominant position on the ticketing market has been denounced several times by artists and politicians.
The most notable example is that of the grunge group Pearl Jam, which tried to circumvent the operator during its 1993 tour, before finally giving up.
More recently, Ticketmaster was criticized for its management of the sale of tickets for American singer Taylor Swift’s tour in November 2022.
Overwhelmed by requests, the operator saw its site malfunction, without being able to filter the “bots”, this software allowing tickets to be purchased in large quantities, to then resell them.
The affair gave rise to public criticism of Taylor Swift but above all to a hearing before the Judiciary Committee of the American Senate, during which one of the group’s leaders was roundly reprimanded.
“To have a solid capitalist system, you need competition,” said Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar on this occasion. “You can’t have too much focus.”
“To say that Live Nation and Ticketmaster have monopolistic power is absurd,” the group insisted on Thursday, affirming that the commissions and fees charged by Ticketmaster were “no higher than elsewhere and frequently lower.”
The Biden government is showing itself to be much more offensive than its predecessors on the competition front.
The Department of Justice has already attacked Google and Apple, but has also managed to thwart several mergers, notably between the airlines Spirit and JetBlue or between the publishers Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster.
© 2024 AFP
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