Justice Department announces lawsuit to break up Ticketmaster parent company, Live Nation

Attorney General Merrick Garland says Live Nation, the parent company of Ticketmaster, "suffocates its competition" as the Justice Department along with 29 states and Washington, D.C. filed a major antitrust lawsuit seeking the break up the company.
Read more: trib.al/L91CGVA
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#livenation #entertainment #antitrust #news #abcnews

[@thundermite1241]

Now target the healthcare industry for the crazy price gouging

[@CreativeArtandEnergy]

The $1800 ear wax removal.

[@thundermite1241]

@@CreativeArtandEnergy or the $500 ambulance ride a block down the street and they dont take insurance

[@towerdragon4487]

Internet and utility companies also

[@zander6086]

Amen!

[@mrdo_LA]

​@@thundermite1241$900 for a 3 min ride in 1995 in backwoods Longview East Texas.

[@ClassicCarCustodians]

Ticket price $200, at checkout, $400.

[@Chereese0808]

4 people = $1,600.00 😳

[@skyboy1956]

Vote with your wallet ! ! If they don't sell tickets the price would come down in a HURRY ! ! !

[@ClassicCarCustodians]

@@skyboy1956 I have not gone to any concerts in years. It’s a ripoff. I can see it on YT for free in HD.

[@ggs_wolfie5449]

So they scammed us to go to the concert and when we canceled we can't make it and not getting our money back they should give our money back right now

[@devilsson6660]

This should've happened 30 years ago...its old news for Ticketmaster

[@TheOriginalGaPeach]

Amen! I agree!

[@dwaynepiper3261]

Same with Apple and many other corporations. They did nothing and let them get away with it for decades so why now?

[@queentopia9225]

I knew someone in high school who said they were going to become a lawyer specifically to take down Ticketmaster. That was back in 1996. They've been gouging folks for decades.

[@wildkindness2223]

Pearl Jam

[@bcb7443]

The larger the company, the more greedy they get!!

[@weroliera]

Greedy companies. But go after pharmaceutical and healthcare.

[@michaelccopelandsr7120]

That's the difference. The pharma and healthcare companies are paying off the politicians. I'm betting ticketmaster didn't want to pay what the politicians were demanding. So, now this.

[@G_ECHO4460]

So sad, mankind cannot direct his own step, as a result he leads others under his leadership to ruin. This world is all about the ME attitude. Selfish, greed, power and corruption. We all render an account to The Righteous Judge, Jehovah God. These people live on other’s sweat and tears, but they don’t care, are happy? Can you even sleep soundly at night? It’s about time you do something Garland. Go and get them and the pharmaceutical companies and insurance companies. These people have no conscience at all.

[@michaelccopelandsr7120]

@@G_ECHO4460 But they do have money and greed silences conscience. At least it's bipartisan.

[@mrdo_LA]

Garland?? Is that you? Haven't seen you in ages!

[@DashRiprock1]

Back in my day what Ticketmaster and Live Nation are doing was called Ticket Scalping.

[@KaleighMacKay]

They aren’t a reseller. Stub Hub, Seat Geek and Vivid Seats are. That’s scalping. StubHub takes 37% commission. Ticketmaster takes 2-7%

[@thomasmorris2245]

I have worked as a Rock Promoter- and you are allowed to sell your own tickets 🎫- This was in the 70’s so I just sold tickets at outlets and gave them to Radio Stations to give away Comp Tickets 🎟️ Enough small promoters are going to have to get big enough to get a significant amount of the Market. This was possible in the 80’s

[@SemperUbi_SubUbi]

Beyond overdue. My expectations are not high because our government is so inept.

[@magicray5088]

inept Gov is House with GOP / Senate - DEM'S / president DEM's ( all three Government needs to be one party since they will not work with one another) Just go and check voting records this past year? on any bill you want... a divided nation will fail, its just a fact.

[@davidmcglone409]

I agree. I'm sitting here thinking, "after this, ticket prices will drop a whopping $3.00"

[@magicray5088]

@@davidmcglone409 $3.00 dollars maybe for a tooth brush exhibit but Spring training Baseball for four different venues for two tickets you pay more for the service then you do to see the New York Yankees play the game....

[@timmy101231]

Finally ! As someone who works for independent venues this is the greatest news ever 🇺🇸

[@tarnum113]

Hello from Canada

[@thatothergirl7401]

let's break up more big companies next.... especially power companies- PGE, Phone Companies Atnt, Amazon, FB, etc.

[@davidmcglone409]

Apple, Google, Amazon, FB, and all the larger than life tech companies as well.

[@dowfam]

A football ticket should not cost 900 dollars a tickets and a Taylor swift concert should not cost 3k a ticket

[@SalettaRocks]

This breakup needs to be done to political parties too!

[@sunnysted2862]

Same in Australia. Ticketmaster dominates here too..Great to see they are being held accountable

[@c.rogers4394]

Time to start going after insurance companies, and to bring back the antitrust laws that got watered down by former presidents on both sides of the aisle.

[@saldiver2]

Now target work exploitation among gig work companies like UBER, Lyft, doordash etc… is ridiculous how much they are getting away with …. Not FAIR!

[@carolinegalmarini8364]

I had come to the decision that I wasn’t going to any live shows again after paying almost $400 per ticket to see Pearl Jam. This lawsuit should have happened years ago. The guys in Metallica spoke to Congress about this but gave it up when they realized all their money in the future would coming from live shows and not album sales.

[@louiedelatorre1667]

That wouldn’t really cause them to stop, because all the money goes to ticket master anyways not really the artists, they probably stopped because the government just wasn’t’t caring to do anything about it.

[@glennr9913]

Industrial scalpers!!

[@DiannaSage]

Well that's sooooo important in these worldwide dangerous times !!

[@patrickmendez1505]

Hopefully this will make tickets more affordable..

[@davidmcglone409]

My bet is, ticket prices will drop by $2 or $3 dollars. lol

[@CreativeArtandEnergy]

This is important. The artists can art.

[@carolinegalmarini8364]

But then you have private companies buying dozens of tickets and legally selling them at exorbitant prices

[@spir5102]

Great. Now when will you stop insider trading by congress members?

[@Ast3rixMusic]

They need to fix Spotify, Apple Music, tidal, sound cloud all of these streaming services are forcing artists into starvation as they steal the profits generated from the use of the artists music on their platforms. Nothing about streaming is fair to the people who make music.

[@evacody1249]

sounds like someone never buys merchandise from music acts they like.

[@Ast3rixMusic]

@@evacody1249 your kidding right? No one lives off merchandise. Royalties are what people in the music industry live off of.

[@stanfordite1]

Or here's a better idea. Outlaw streaming as a medium and force the American public to buy physical media.

[@Ast3rixMusic]

@@stanfordite1 I don’t see us going backwards but if they would fix the current model so it fairly compensates the people who make it possible it would work for everyone. Daily these companies are changing the rules and making it even harder for creators to be able to make a living from music. The value of a song is less than a penny. You have to have millions of streams just to see any earnings. It’s unfair and forcing music makers into poverty. Not everyone is in the top 100 💯 of billboard. Some are building their fan bases and may never see that volume of streams. Older artists whom we love are in that very category.

[@Chereese0808]

Now the price of beverages! It's insane!

[@Hidinginthetreeline]

It is past time they broke this up.

[@onlymebaby.9249]

Yay. Ive never thought I'd be cheering on the government like this. Yay.

[@michellemacco]

It’s bout time 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

[@Cuttyman510]

I knew it was going to happen. I’ve been saying this for a couple years. They are in a monopoly. Plus Ticketmaster will sell you a ticket with taxes, then allow you to resale the same ticket for a higher price with another sale fee. Ticketmaster controls the venue, the tickets, the artist.

[@scarlettuwu9582]

It took them awhile but at least they’re getting it done, I really hope, ticket prices seemed insane mostly running some horrible algorithm that continually jacks up the cost per second

[@mellgee]

What about news networks?

[@thjbird]

At least you can still attempt a coup without being held accountable. That might look “political”.

[@couragewon]

Live Nation's price gouging also hurts artists

[@reha1066]

THANK YOU!!!

[@Methusalah0]

So they admit it's BEEN a monopoly which is illegal and unconstitutional bit they are just NOW saying it's a problem???

[@stanfordite1]

I look forward to Disney being broken up and having all its acquisitions taken away so that means no more Marvel, Lucasfilm, Pixar, ABC, ESPN, Muppets, Hulu, etc. The Muppets will be handed back to the Hensons and Lucasfilm back to George's family. Disney will be told to learn its place in the world as nothing but an animation studio with some theme parks that asks "What would Walt do?" to make decisions just as it was after his death for decades.

[@AmericanAntiCorruptionAct]

How about a lawsuit to break up the government and AIPAC.

[@ericmares8036]

Thank you!

[@summertime8788]

Its about damned time!!!

[@katrinanelson6175]

I don't go anywhere, but I love it! 🤣🤣🤣👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

[@robertjamesonmusic]

Good! F Ticket master

[@selcouth86]

Other monopolies right now in the U.S., hold onto your butts.

[@romandevivo1163]

Garland seems to be the type of guy who rather chooses to wash the dishes while his entire house is burning down. What a failure of an AG.

[@jimperkins6073]

🤔😁😉

[@fire-n-rain]

Do the same with fakebook!

[@EM-mw2qr]

So what's going on with this case? It seems to be going nowhere. How much power does this damn Ticketmaster have???

[@saldiver2]

Yes we need that about time…

[@EM-mw2qr]

Put the criminals of Live Nation and Ticketmaster in jail!!!

[@RobustArid379]

Every corporation fee charged tooo much

[@onlymebaby.9249]

Waaat. Is this good or bad. Will concert tickets go down now? I hope so. I still remember $5 general admission to concerts. Yeah. Im that old. But tickets cost an arm and a leg. Yay.

[@onlymebaby.9249]

@@Pleasesaveamerica child, I'm talking Way waaaaay before. Like Jackson 5 era. But I was there at 12 years old. ❤️❤️

[@seansingh4421]

@@onlymebaby.9249Wow, but you’re still young at heart. That’s pretty refreshing

[@russellregister8553]

Absolutely loving this DOJ

[@osmithize]

Hope you vote for biden in November

[@joemartinez4997]

This Garland guy is a joke, He should be working on what is the real issues that people are dealing with. Not about who is buying tickets to go watch an artist. People that pay to go watch an artist. That is their choice. Let's deal with Gas gouging, food execs who are raising and making smaller products. I still don't know why Biden appointed this person.

[@RiseoftheLibertarian]

They won't compete because they eliminate competition? Well that describes Walmart, Microsoft, Facebook, Google, and a handful of other companies. But, they won't go after those who donate to their cause.

[@stanfordite1]

Oh they are going after all those companies. To quote Darth Sideous: "Wipe them out. All of them."

[@MasterHokageGamer]

Wait for the Chief Justices to start showing up at concerts in private Booth's.

[@WalkiTalki]

Merrick has proven he can not do the right thing. Congress needs to tie his hands. But then again they refuse to even impeach him nor prosecute him for contempt so I guess voters can only hold their breath and cross their fingers that he doesn't do too much more damage before November.

[@SimonGonzales-t8c]

Nope wrong answer

[@kevinpusey4902]

You obviously never go to concerts.

[@regu6582]

@@kevinpusey4902 Or any other venue. If congress had done it's job, tRump would have been in prison already. You notice the poster said nothing about that though.

[@SimonGonzales-t8c]

@@kevinpusey4902 nope

[@kevinpusey4902]

I just bought 6 tickets for 4 events through TM/LN. Each ticket was $97, and a "service charge" of $21 each! Total "service charge" $126!

[@meyerdude]

OIL COMPANIES WALMART? You choose to go to concerts you have to EAT! and heat your home! Garland is such a disappointment. He's a institutionalist.

[@LWfanboy]

DoJ's foot dragging on Trump may have ended the Republic, but at last I'll finally be able to afford those Green Day tickets.

[@magicray5088]

About time!!!

[@spir5102]

Great. Now when will the sitting Republican congress members who participated in the insurrection be indicted?

[@skyboy1956]

The answer should be obvious, the reason no one has been indicted for insurrection is because there was no insurrection.

[@jimperkins6073]

Indict the President that showered with Ashley next😇🤣😂

[@kaizermengele6669]

What insurrection? you mean the October 18 capital riot led by key democrats?

[@melody796]

I remember when Pearl Jam tried to fight against Ticketmaster back in the 90’s

[@michaelccopelandsr7120]

Capitalism 101: You don't help the people. You prey on them!

[@skyboy1956]

socialism 101. Make people dependent on the government. "Oh thank you government for protecting me from those evil ticket companies! I will vote for you forever!"

[@dereckbrannigan6195]

When is the AG going to investigate corruption in SCOTUS????? Do you job Mr Garland

[@SgtJoeSmith]

just add all the fees into 1 lump sum price and people wont complain

[@deborahdillon8219]

Lets break up ALL of the monopolies..food, transportation, communications, social media, etc

[@richardsnyder842]

I still want the right to walk up to the box office and make a cash purchase for a ticket that has a face value price printed on it. My first experience with the online digital ticket scalpers was the Cotton Bowl game that featured Clemson and Notre Dame. I backed out of going because of the ticket prices and when the game started there were complete blocks of empty seats upstairs. The online ticket brokers claim that the ticket prices are completely "market driven". How are the prices market driven when the seats are empty at game time and were previously advertised for $200 dollars each? Which effectively makes the value of the ticket $00.00.

[@inzailings]

Its about time

[@skyboy1956]

After roughing up parents for smarting off at school board meetings, the DOJ has now set it's focus on concert ticket prices, lmao . . .

[@JaymeeAngell222]

Im a major victim of this. Thank you for doing this for me.

[@ogles824]

Most definitely break them up in fact shut them down completely. They are nothing but legalized ticket scalping. I, said that since they first came to be. My daughter just went to see Harry Styles across the pond. Getting a passport, hotel for a week, event ticket, and air fare, and food etc for the whole trip was still way cheaper than seeing Harry Styles in the states, that is how much they are price gouging. SHUT THEM DOWN COMPLETELY.

[@joanngreen9714]

With the problems we have in this country that needs fixing this is what they are focused on , ridiculous.

[@skyboy1956]

Exactly ! ! Merritt Garland is worthless ! !

[@ishtlutz1261]

*I thought he was talking about Black Rock & all them for a second.*

[@MagaVoteDJT]

What about that stupid president who leaves the border wide open

[@skyboy1956]

He is making sure illegals can get cheap ticket prices ! !

[@jimperkins6073]

@@skyboy1956 🤔😂🤣

[@Jim-o1g2j]

Of all things wrong right now this is what the dept of injustice is doing. How about going after criminals leaving honest Americans alone. This is a diversion. DoI doesn’t care about Ticketmaster.

[@wildkindness2223]

They will work around it and nothing will change

[@adenshures6573]

It's about time.

[@xaidensgrandpa]

We all know that the US government is allowed to be the only monopoly.

[@franklinnoblitt8387]

Shake it off

[@Wizardof]

Now get rid of the DeVry, Phoenix, and ITT Technical Institute CEOs and their thug investors.

[@peterscherling1141]

Sounds like an insult to both God and satan

[@GigaHellblaze]

Go after sport stadiums next! Ticket prices are outrageous there! Greedy companies are price gouging across the country on things we buy in stores and love to go to watch sports!

[@evacody1249]

🤦‍♂️ the ticket prices are that way because of Livenation.

[@00Kath]

Finally especially with their ridiculous hidden service fees etc. added especially when you pick it up from the box office. Cheating bands out of money that they should get especially from selling merchandise/tickets. Monopoly and control of venues. The fluctuation of tickets prices for a show that vary from day to day. Finally maybe now bands and fans can be treated fairly! Thank you.

[@travlite8496]

This idiot should be arresting his boss and the should be arrested with him.

[@alexanderpetrow8668]

Good. It's about F'ing time

[@brandydurbin]

Hearing the important issues. 😂

[@AngieGarcia-bw9if]

Finally!

[@Phar2Rekliss]

And they call us a Capitalism.

[@CASE_of_ÆrTh]

In economics there exists something known as a monopsony. There are also natural monopolies. Please don't fight against natural law, please.

[@bradsmith236]

GROW THAT MOAT! GROW THAT MOAT! lol

[@crispinfornoff206]

Just what no one needed

[@SeanOHanlon]

It's about damn time.

[@jack7240]

Yeah how about breaking up UnitedHealthCare 😂

[@baileysbeck]

Wow they forgot to drop off the back door envelope

[@brandydurbin]

Recall the Supreme Court!!

[@MatthewMorgan25]

Insomniac Events has been draining the EDM industry for years with bad practices that are similar in nature.

[@jooosAREevil]

Now Amazon needs this

[@taraaliyeva1813]

I remember back in the day been able to travel to EU watch concerts. Now you can only afford the door only. Now a regular ticket can go in the thousands and that is if you book with in 6months from the day.

[@RatTerminator]

About fkn time!! What about stub hub& all the others??!!

[@pauldockree9915]

Well Done. Now go out there and win fairly if a win is merited.

[@michaelgomez3044]

Now go after Google.

[@jimperkins6073]

A Criminal going after Criminals😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😉🤨

[@eccletic32]

GOOD they have been ripping me off for YEARS!

[@WPPCProductions]

They should of been shutdown years ago.