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Thursday, March 12, 2026
Live Nation Reaches a Settlement With the DOJ Over Alleged Ticketing Monopoly
gizmodo.com: Live Nation has tentatively settled the antitrust lawsuit brought by the Department of Justice and joined by 30 states. The agreement was announced at a hearing on Monday, per Bloomberg, but still requires the judge’s approval.
2 comments:
Concorde77
said...
This really isn’t a satisfying answer to Ticketmaster & Live Nation’s monopoly on the live music industry. They have continued to drive up prices, gain control of more venues, and no one has stood in their way to stop them. When a monopoly is created, there is no way to really control it and it can do whatever it wants. I experienced this firsthand when buying tickets to a concert last week, where I had to play chicken with the prices for hours before they finally reached a level that was acceptable right before the concert began. The starting asking prices were just insane. The people around me at the concert I saw had paid more than double what I had for the same seats in the arena. I recognize that there are broader economic factors that are driving up the cost of mounting major concert tours, however, a lot of this heightened cost is coming from Live Nation and ticket scalpers. This settlement does not go far enough, and I hope the judge rejects it.
This is not “the good ending” or really any ending at all, this just fines them and puts some soft limits on them, such as having to divest in their assets and limit ticket fees. However, they can still put a fee up to 15% on tickets, and a 15% fee on a already rising average ticket price is about $30-$40. While not a lot, they’re still going to make a lot of money for practically doing not much, except maintaining the ticketing service (their main money maker). They still will collect the expenses in other ways, such as charging artists more to use their venues. Live Nation is still continuing a monopoly, especially considering how they’ll still own about 470 venues, as they only have to pull out of 10 amphitheaters. I definitely think we still need to regulate this more, as whats currently happening is not working, but the future will tell us.
2 comments:
This really isn’t a satisfying answer to Ticketmaster & Live Nation’s monopoly on the live music industry. They have continued to drive up prices, gain control of more venues, and no one has stood in their way to stop them. When a monopoly is created, there is no way to really control it and it can do whatever it wants. I experienced this firsthand when buying tickets to a concert last week, where I had to play chicken with the prices for hours before they finally reached a level that was acceptable right before the concert began. The starting asking prices were just insane. The people around me at the concert I saw had paid more than double what I had for the same seats in the arena. I recognize that there are broader economic factors that are driving up the cost of mounting major concert tours, however, a lot of this heightened cost is coming from Live Nation and ticket scalpers. This settlement does not go far enough, and I hope the judge rejects it.
This is not “the good ending” or really any ending at all, this just fines them and puts some soft limits on them, such as having to divest in their assets and limit ticket fees. However, they can still put a fee up to 15% on tickets, and a 15% fee on a already rising average ticket price is about $30-$40. While not a lot, they’re still going to make a lot of money for practically doing not much, except maintaining the ticketing service (their main money maker). They still will collect the expenses in other ways, such as charging artists more to use their venues. Live Nation is still continuing a monopoly, especially considering how they’ll still own about 470 venues, as they only have to pull out of 10 amphitheaters. I definitely think we still need to regulate this more, as whats currently happening is not working, but the future will tell us.
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