{"id":502234,"date":"2026-03-04T01:08:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T01:08:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/502234\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T01:08:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T01:08:07","slug":"us-alleges-ticketmaster-has-broken-the-concert-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/502234\/","title":{"rendered":"US alleges Ticketmaster has broken the concert industry"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 A high-stakes antitrust trial<\/a> that could lead to the possible breakup of Live Nation, the parent company of Ticketmaster, got underway Tuesday in a case over whether the entertainment giant\u2019s dominance of the concert industry<\/a> amounts to an illegal monopoly.<\/p>\n

In opening statements, a U.S. Justice Department lawyer pointed to the company\u2019s infamously problem-plagued effort<\/a> to sell Taylor Swift tickets in 2022 as he implored the Manhattan federal jury to end the company\u2019s hold on the market and reward artists and consumers with a competitive marketplace that will leave them with more money.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis case is about power, the power of a monopolist to control competition,\u201d said the attorney, David Dahlquist. \u201cToday, the concert ticket industry is broken.\u201d<\/p>\n

David Marriott, arguing on behalf of the companies, disputed the government\u2019s claims.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll let the numbers do the talking,\u201d he said. \u201cWe do not have monopoly power.\u201d<\/p>\n

Judge Arun Subramanian has told jurors that evidence will be presented over the next six weeks before they\u2019ll be left to decide whether Live Nation and Ticketmaster broke antitrust laws.<\/p>\n

The trial stems from a lawsuit filed in 2024<\/a> that alleged the companies have dominated the industry by suffocating competitors and controlling everything from concert promotion to ticketing.<\/p>\n

Ticketmaster, which was established in 1976 and merged with Live Nation in 2010, is the world\u2019s largest ticket seller across live music, sports, theater and more.<\/p>\n

Dahlquist noted that the ticket seller sparked outrage in November 2022 when its site crashed during a presale event for Swift\u2019s Eras Tour<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The company said the site was overwhelmed by both fans and attacks from bots, which were posing as consumers to scoop up tickets and sell them on secondary sites. The debacle prompted congressional hearings<\/a> and bills in state legislatures aimed at better protecting consumers.<\/p>\n

Dahlquist said Live Nation\u2019s anti-competitive practices include using long-term contracts ranging from five to seven years to keep venues from choosing rivals and blocking venues from using multiple ticket sellers.<\/p>\n

Ticketmaster\u2019s clashes with artists and fans date back three decades. Pearl Jam took aim at the company in 1994, years before the Live Nation merger, although the Justice Department ultimately declined to bring a case. <\/p>\n

Live Nation has maintained that artists and teams set prices and decide how tickets are sold.<\/p>\n

Marriott said Live Nation was the world\u2019s biggest supporter of musical artists, enabling 159 million people in 2025 to see 11,000 artists at 55,000 concerts.<\/p>\n

He said the government has exaggerated how much the companies make, including by saying Ticketmaster pockets $7 a ticket, when it actually gets $5 and clears less than $2 after expenses.<\/p>\n

Live Nation and Ticketmaster, he said, \u201care all about bringing joy to people\u2019s lives.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 A high-stakes antitrust trial that could lead to the possible breakup of Live Nation,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":502235,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[39423,28,9970,228856,228857,88,793,851,163164,2402,18320,3130,2221,146210,4227,25222,34255,6377,2005,1999,9612,4915,2226,10585,795,21,792],"class_list":{"0":"post-502234","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-arun-subramanian","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-consumer-prices","11":"tag-david-dahlquist","12":"tag-david-marriott","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-general-news","15":"tag-inc","16":"tag-industry-regulation","17":"tag-inflation","18":"tag-juries","19":"tag-lawsuits","20":"tag-legal-proceedings","21":"tag-live-nation-entertainment","22":"tag-manhattan","23":"tag-media-and-entertainment-industry","24":"tag-monopoly-and-antitrust","25":"tag-national","26":"tag-new-york","27":"tag-new-york-city","28":"tag-pearl-jam","29":"tag-taylor-swift","30":"tag-trials","31":"tag-u-s-department-of-justice","32":"tag-u-s-news","33":"tag-united-states","34":"tag-united-states-government"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=502234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/502235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=502234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=502234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=502234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}