Ticketmaster and Live Nation face ‘antitrust’ lawsuit

Live Nation and its Ticketmaster subsidiary are officially facing a class-action antitrust lawsuit over their alleged “blatant, anti-consumer behaviour,”. The filing, specifically based around alleged violations of their consent decree, efforts to “monopolise the primary ticketing services market” via exclusive deals with “the vast majority of major concert venues,” and more. 

The lawsuit is centred around four individuals (residing in Florida, California, and Ohio) who purchased primary and/or secondary tickets from Ticketmaster. The recently submitted all-encompassing complaint has been filed at the California federal court. 

The comprehensive 76-page document notes that the filing parties’ counsel in April of 2020 brought a different class-action suit against Live Nation, also over the alleged monopolistic business practices. 

In summary, the updated agreement ‘designates New Era ADR as the dispute resolution forum’ 

The in-depth lawsuit continues with a multitude of other litigation to form the complete case against Live Nation and its Ticketmaster subsidiary. 

It is not the first time that ticketing platforms have been held accountable for wrongdoing and it will be interesting to see the outcome of this specific hearing with the knock-on effects potentially launching other complaints of type.