Taylor Swift fans are suing Ticketmaster over price gouging

The defeat led to a hearing in the US Senate on consolidation in the field of ticket sales. In May, the US Department of Justice filed an antimonopoly lawsuit seeking to break up Ticketmaster and Live Nation, which he accused of abusing their alleged monopoly on ticket sales to trample competitors.

In a statement provided to WIRED at the time, Live Nation disputed the claim. “The Justice Department’s lawsuit will not address the concerns fans have about ticket prices, payment for services and access to in-demand shows,” the company wrote. “Calling Ticketmaster a monopoly may be a PR win for the Justice Department in the short term, but it will lose in court because it ignores the fundamental economic aspects of live entertainment, such as the fact that the bulk of service fees go to venues and that competition is constantly was reducing Ticketmaster’s market share and profit margins.”

The original lawsuit, filed by Swift fans, accused Ticketmaster and Live Nation of breach of contract, fraud, misrepresentation and antitrust violations. The complaint alleges that Ticketmaster broke its promise to provide presale tickets to fans. Meanwhile, by signing exclusive contracts with major venues and forcing fans to resell tickets through its own resale marketplace, the lawsuit alleges, Ticketmaster has established a monopoly that it uses to inflate ticket prices for its own financial gain.

“This case involves Ticketmaster’s anti-competitive conduct aimed at charging higher prices to music concertgoers in the pre-sale, pre-sale and resale markets,” the complaint states. “Ticketmaster has implemented this anti-competitive scheme by forcing music fans to use Ticketmaster exclusively for advance and sale prices that exceed the competitive market price.”

The new lawsuit is nearly identical to the original federal case, but expands to include fans of artists other than Taylor Swift and adds an alleged RICO violation to the list. The new indictment is based on the premise that Ticketmaster and Live Nation coordinated with partner organizations to achieve a dominant market position and squeeze consumers in a manner that meets the definition of an “enterprise” under RICO.

“Live Nation and Ticketmaster are leveraging their relationships with each other and with the stadiums that Live Nation primarily owns to further their enterprise, and have done so since the Department of Justice recklessly approved their merger nearly a decade and a half ago. therefore,” the complaint states.