Chorus of Concerns

Attorney General Merrick Garland

“We allege that Live Nation relies on unlawful, anticompetitive conduct to exercise its monopolistic control over the live events industry in the United States at the cost of fans, artists, smaller promoters, and venue operators… The result is that fans pay more in fees, artists have fewer opportunities to play concerts, smaller promoters get squeezed out, and venues have fewer real choices for ticketing services. It is time to break up Live Nation-Ticketmaster.” (2024)

Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco

“Today’s announcement reflects the latest efforts by the Justice Department to combat corporate misconduct… Our fight against corporate wrongdoing includes an intense focus on anticompetitive conduct — which disadvantages consumers, workers, and businesses of all kinds. Today’s complaint alleges that Live Nation-Ticketmaster have engaged in anticompetitive conduct to cement their dominance of the live concert market and act as the gatekeeper for an entire industry. Today’s action is a step forward in making this era of live music more accessible for the fans, the artists, and the industry that supports them.” (2024)

Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter

“The live music industry in America is broken because Live Nation-Ticketmaster has an illegal monopoly… Our antitrust lawsuit seeks to break up Live Nation-Ticketmaster’s monopoly and restore competition for the benefit of fans and artists.” (2024)

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird (R)

“When companies like Live Nation and Ticketmaster form monopolies, Americans are left to pay the price,” said Attorney General Bird. “I am suing to uphold the law and ensure that no American has to grapple with inflated prices or poor customer service because Live Nation and Ticketmaster have stifled competition.” (2024)

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill (R)

“The conduct outlined in our complaint violates the law. Anticompetitive conduct hurts consumers by blocking choices and increasing prices. I look forward to resolving this case in a way that protects the public and Louisianans from such anticompetitive practices in the future.” (2024)

Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers (R)

“Ticketmaster and Live Nation dominate the market for live entertainment, and Nebraska consumers are frustrated with the extremely high fees charged by these companies. Nebraskans deserve the benefits of robust competition, and we look forward to working with our federal and state enforcement partners to make sure that Ticketmaster and Live Nation follow the law,” said Attorney General Hilgers. (2024)

New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez (D)

“Joining this litigation reaffirms our commitment to protecting consumers and ensuring a level playing field in the marketplace,” said AG Torrez. “The monopolistic practices of Live Nation-Ticketmaster have harmed not only the live entertainment industry but also the countless fans who deserve fair access to events. By holding this company accountable, we are standing up for the rights of New Mexicans and millions of Americans who have been unfairly impacted by these anticompetitive actions.” (2024)

South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley (R)

“Live Nation-Ticketmaster is monopolizing live concert markets across the nation,” said Attorney General Jackley. “This anti-competitive conduct increases ticket prices for South Dakotans and makes it more challenging for music goers to attend live performances.” (2024)

Vermont Attorney General Charity Clark (D)

“Competition is vital to a healthy economy, including in the live music industry,” said Attorney General Clark. “Live Nation-Ticketmaster has engaged in anticompetitive conduct that has ensured its dominance in the live concert and ticketing markets – at the expense of Vermont consumers, workers, and businesses. Their conduct makes live music less accessible for fans, artists, and the industry that supports them, and that is a shame.” (2024)

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti (R)

“The ticketing industry has been broken for decades by Ticketmaster’s exploitive monopoly, harming both consumers and the talented people across Tennessee who work hard to provide live music experiences.” (2024)

Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky (IL)

“Ticketmaster has no inclination to work with the Federal Trade Commission to stop these bots from buying all the tickets.” (2023)

Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Mike Lee (R-UT)

“[W]e have long been concerned about the state of competition in America’s ticketing industry, especially with the power and reach of Live Nation and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Ticketmaster. We strongly believe that music and live events connect communities and bring people together. For too long, Live Nation and Ticketmaster have wielded monopoly power anticompetitively, harming fans and artists alike.” (2023)

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO)

“…you’re [Ticketmaster] forcing everyone in the resale market to come into your ecosystem… This is how monopolies work… You leverage market power in one market to get market power in another market — and it looks like you’re doing that in, frankly, multiple markets.” (2023)

Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA)

“…I’m not against big, per se. I am against dumb. And the way your company handled the ticket sales for Ms. Swift was a debacle. And whoever in your company was in charge of that ought to be fired.” (2023)

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)

“Ticketmaster and its parent company, Live Nation, are having a moment — a bad moment. Years of bullying both artists and venues, while price-gouging customers, has caught up with this corporate giant. The Justice Department has filed a long-overdue antitrust lawsuit for its predatory practices — and cheers can be heard from all parts of the live performance world.” (2024)

Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Cory Booker (D-NJ)

“And for those venues that are able to remain independent through the pandemic, many have raised concerns about Live Nation leveraging its dominance in ticketing, artist management, and other markets to prevent independent venues from booking events after the crisis is over. Apparently, in the midst of this crisis, some investors are also optimistic about Live Nation’s long-term prospects; Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund reportedly just invested $500 million in the company.”  (2020)

32 Members of the House of Representatives

“We write in support of American consumers, artists, and independent venues suffering from the Live Nation-Ticketmaster merger. There is overwhelming evidence that the merger between the world’s largest concert promoter and the largest ticket provider strangled competition for ticketing in the live entertainment marketplace. While the harm consumers and artists have endured for over a decade cannot be reversed, ticketing and venue competitors, fans, and local music communities would breathe a collective sigh of relief if the merger were undone.” (2022)

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY)

“I’m supporting unwinding that merger. I don’t believe it should’ve been approved in the first place. My hope is that the DOJ investigation is going to reveal how grave the abuse of market share and power is, and how it’s played a role in the prices that everyday consumers are seeing. The big thing is how do they justify service charges that make up anywhere between 20 to 100 percent of the ticket’s price? That is really difficult to defend.” (2022)

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA)

“Live Nation and Ticketmaster overcharge and deceive customers with exorbitant prices and hidden fees. It’s long past time for the Justice Department to break up their monopoly.” (2024)

Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-NJ)

“Whether it is fans of Taylor Swift or countless other performers, the abuses of this monopoly have harmed tens of millions of Americans who are fed up with endless fees and ticket schemes… Our federal leaders must work together to reform this broken marketplace for fans, as well as artists, venues, promoters, and others throughout the live event industry, and finally hold Live Nation-Ticketmaster accountable.” (2024)

Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO)

“Live Nation’s monopoly on the live entertainment industry is bad for artists, bad for consumers, and bad for entertainment in general. Market consolidation is a challenge facing many industries in America, and it is something that Congress and the Biden administration should work together to address, so that we can crack down on corporate greed and lower costs for the public.” (2023)

Sally Greenberg, National Consumers League

“There are no angels in this industry. Whether buying from a reseller, Ticketmaster, or directly from the box office, consumers find themselves feeling gouged, forced to pay junk fees thanks to drip pricing, and having to put up with bad customer service operations. Just ask the millions of Oasis fans who suddenly learned what “dynamic pricing” can do to the price of a ticket. It does not have to be this way.” (2024)

National Consumers League

“In 2010, the Department of Justice decided that allowing Ticketmaster to swallow up its largest competitor could be a net positive for live event fans. The last fourteen years have proven beyond any reasonable doubt that the DOJ’s bet was dead wrong,” said John Breyault, National Consumers League Vice President of Public Policy, Telecommunications & Fraud. (2024)

Demand Progress

“Time and time again, Ticketmaster’s failures go unpunished. Lack of competition means they face no pressure to improve and consumers are left paying the price.” (2024)

American Antitrust Institute

“AAI applauds the U.S. Department of Justice for the bold and necessary step of suing to break up Ticketmaster and Live Nation. This lamentable 2010 combination of music behemoths was sold to policymakers on the promise of enhanced competition in concert promotion, ticketing, and venue operation markets through vertical integration or bundling. With the gift of 14 years’ hindsight, however, it is clear that any gains even arguably attributable to efficiency rather than market power have been pocketed; they have not been passed on to consumers or musicians.” (2024)

Gene Kimmelman, Former Senior DOJ Official who Helped Lead the 2010 Agreement

“Ticketmaster’s use of anticompetitive contracts that blocked competition makes a break up now necessary… Efforts to use less severe constraints clearly have not been sufficient to open the ticketing market to competition.” (2024)

“It’s very compelling what the government found here—the mutually reinforcing, anticompetitive behavior that blocks entry and expansion of competition across the entire ticketing ecosystem.” (2024)

Progressive Policy Institute Vice President and Director of Competition Policy Diana Moss

“The wheels of antitrust enforcement turn slowly. Monopolization cases can take years to litigate. High burdens of proof to show monopoly power and practices designed to reinforce or extend that power make the government’s job in court even more challenging. But if ever there were a monopoly where evidence of harm is plentiful, it would be Live Nation-Ticketmaster. A conversation about potential fixes opens the door to what competitive markets for live events would look like, something that competition, fans, and artists surely deserve.” (2024)

American Economic Liberties Project Senior Counsel Katherine Van Dyck

“With an investigation of Live Nation-Ticketmaster’s anticompetitive and monopolistic practices already underway, there are a number of legal options the Justice Department can use to finally return competition to the live events industry… A toothless consent decree and lax oversight have allowed Live Nation-Ticketmaster to become a caricature of monopoly power, strong-arming venues and artists and ripping off fans on its way to record profits. The solution is clear: the Justice Department must pursue the divestment of not just Ticketmaster but also Live Nation’s venue operations, concert promotions, and artist management businesses into independent entities, so that it can no longer leverage its monopoly power to freeze out competitors from any part of its empire.” (2024)

American Economic Liberties Project’s Morgan Harper

“For far too long, Live Nation-Ticketmaster has acted as the mafia boss of the live events industry — using its power to rip off fans with sky-high prices and junk fees, exploit musicians and artists, and bully workers and small business owners in the industry. Since 2022, we’ve been urging the government to take action to stop the obvious abuses of this cartoonishly-villainous monopoly—mobilizing the 100,000-plus Americans who sent letters to the Department of Justice through our Break Up Ticketmaster coalition.” (2024)

Center for American Progress’s Marc Jarsulic

“There is no guarantee that Taylor Swift ticket sales would have gone without a hitch if Live Nation’s merger with Ticketmaster had been blocked. But it is very likely that ticket selling would be more competitive, that tickets could have been offered through more than one company, and that those competing companies would not have made the same blunders. That’s what happens when buyers have alternatives; it keeps sellers on their toes.” (2022)

Open Markets Institute’s Sandeep Vaheesan

“The antitrust lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice and 30 state attorneys general strikes a critical blow on behalf of the American public against Live Nation’s suffocating monopoly over live music. Through a series of acquisitions and coercive tactics, Live Nation has unfairly dominated the promotion, hosting, and ticketing of concerts for years to the great detriment of artists, fans, and independent businesses. Critically, rather than attempt to remedy this monopoly through surgical fixes, the government wisely seeks to terminate Live Nation’s control of the industry through a breakup of this behemoth.” (2024)

The Cure’s Robert Smith

“People are terrified of upsetting Live Nation and Ticketmaster… It’s really bizarre…” (2024)

Neil Young

“I get letters blaming me for $3,000.00 tickets for a benefit I am doing. That money does not go to me or the benefit. Artists have to worry about ripped off fans blaming them for Ticketmaster add-ons and scalpers. Concert tours are no longer fun. Concert tours not what they were.” (2023)

Big Black Delta

“It’s impossible for me to tour due to Ticketmaster fees. Both sides are getting hosed. The listener and the performer.” (2022)

Clyde Lawrence

Live Nation is “the largest player in a game that feels stacked against us as artists, and often our fans as well.” (2023)

Nickodemus

“These companies have been making it more & more difficult for touring artists on so many levels too. It’s horrible for any emerging venue or artist.” (2022)

Zach Bryan

“I’m fully aware of the Ticketmaster and Live Nation relationship. All my decisions -moving forward- will reflect this and until there is a serious change in the system all my homies will continue to hate Ticketmaster.” (2022)

Kid Rock

“‘We need these politicians to change it, or they need to straighten up. Ticketmaster needs to do the right thing. Because they’re claiming it’s the right thing, this “verified fan” and all this sh*t, but guess what? The artist don’t get any of that. It’s f*cking highway robbery.” (2024)