The Justice Department filed a long-awaited antitrust lawsuit against Ticketmaster and parent company Live Nation on Thursday, in an effort to break up an unlawful monopoly that is squeezing artists, promoters and venues while driving up prices for fans.
Two days before the lawsuit was filed, one of the “architects” of President Joe Biden’s antitrust agenda made a concise and clear case for why the administration should pursue it.
Tim Wu, former Special Assistant to the President for Technology and Competition Policy, spoke Tuesday to a gathering of antitrust hawks at the American Economic Liberties Project’s Anti-Monopoly Summit in Washington, DC. When the discussion turned to Ticketmaster and Live Nation, Wu called it “the monopoly of our time that everyone hates.”
He argued that if any modern company should be targeted by antitrust enforcement, it should be Ticketmaster-Live Nation, and that prosecuting such a case was a matter of following the “popular will”:
If or when the United States Department of Justice files charges against Ticketmaster-Live Nation, it will be a happy day for the Republic. I just want to point out that if you ask anyone on the street, they may have some feelings about Google or Apple, but no one, no one likes the Ticketmaster monopoly. And I think there’s something to that. I think we need to show that we take people’s concerns seriously. It’s like you’re in everyone’s face: Ticketmaster Live Nation is this pristine monopoly…
If we go back in history again, Theodore Roosevelt started antitrust, and he said, “We’ve got to break up Standard Oil. What is this? If this law was written for anything, it was written for the Standard Oil monopoly.” And if this movement means anything in our time, it will take on Ticketmaster, the monopoly of our time that everyone hates. I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but I think I just did that. But I do think it is important that the will of the people says something.
Watch Wu’s full comments above, courtesy of the American Economic Liberties Project.
The Justice Department’s lawsuit accuses Ticketmaster-Live Nation of eliminating rivals in the live events market, retaliating against venues that don’t play, foreclosing competition with exclusive contracts and bullying artists into using to avail of their promotional services. The office was joined by 30 attorneys general in filing the complaint.
Live Nation said in a statement that the lawsuit “will not resolve the issues fans care about” regarding ticket prices and service fees, and called the Justice Department’s allegations “baseless.”
“Calling Tickmaster a monopoly may be a short-term PR win for the DOJ, but it will lose in court because it ignores the fundamental economics of live entertainment, such as the fact that the majority of service fees go to venues , and that competition has steadily eroded Ticketmaster’s market share and profit margin,” the company said.
If the lawsuit is successful, a judge could force the company to divest certain parts of its business. Jonathan Kanter, head of the DOJ’s antitrust division, said in a statement Thursday that the goal was to “restore competition for the benefit of fans and artists.”
