The Justice Department and a group of states plan to sue Live Nation Entertainment, the concert giant that owns Ticketmaster, as soon as Thursday, accusing it of illegally maintaining a monopoly in the live entertainment industry, said three people familiar with the matter.
That helped the company maintain a monopoly, raising prices and fees for consumers and limiting innovation in the ticket industry, the people said.
The government will argue that tours promoted by the company were more likely to play venues where Ticketmaster was the exclusive ticket service, one of the people said, and that Live Nation’s artists played venues that it owns.
Live Nation is a colossus of the concert world and a force in the lives of musicians and fans alike.
Its scale and reach far exceed those of any competitor, encompassing concert promotion, ticketing, artist management and the operation of hundreds of venues and festivals around the world.
Organizations:
Justice Department, Live Nation Entertainment, Ticketmaster