STAGE IS SET

DOJ Gearing Up to Bring Ticketmaster Antitrust Lawsuit: Report

The case could be filed as early as May.

The Justice Department is putting together an antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation—the Ticketmaster parent company—which could come as soon as next month, according to a report. The case would allege that the top concert promoter undermined competition for live events ticketing by leveraging its market dominance, sources told The Wall Street Journal. The specifics of the allegations that the DOJ could bring are not yet clear. The Justice Department has been investigating Live Nation for years over concerns that it breached the terms of a 2010 settlement that allowed it to acquire Ticketmaster. The probe gathered momentum in November 2022 following the spectacular Ticketmaster meltdown during a fan presale for Taylor Swift’s “Eras Tour,” according to the Journal. A Ticketmaster spokeswoman told the paper that: “Ticketmaster has more competition today than it has ever had, and the deal terms with venues show it has nothing close to monopoly power.”