US Justice Department and Ohio Attorney General bring the hammer down on Ticketmaster, Live Nation

The Tcketmaster website is shown on a computer screen. (Photo illustration by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

The Biden Justice Department, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and a bipartisan group of 29 state attorneys general are accusing the company that owns Ticketmaster and Live Nation of violating federal antitrust law.

The company is already well known for insulting customers by labeling its steep ticket charges “convenience fees,” but the suit seeks to undo a merger that was cleared just 14 years ago.

Filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for Southern New York, the suit accuses Live Nation Entertainment of using its dominance of several parts of the entertainment business to set itself up as a huge middleman, jacking up prices while starving the artists patrons are paying to see. The suit accuses the company of using its dominant ownership of the most desirable concert venues, its ticket-selling platform, and its concert-promotion business to lock artists and patrons into its services and to lock competitors out of the picture altogether.

“Live Nation maintains and exercises its power through a coordinated pattern of anticompetitive conduct that serves a variety of ends: expanding its scope and reach into every crevice of an increasingly more complex and interconnected ecosystem, eliminating rivals, continuing to increase barriers to entry, and inhibiting competition on the merits,” said the suit. “Each act is exclusionary on its own. But the acts also work together across the ecosystem, enhanced by the flywheel and scale effects, to magnify the anticompetitive force of the scheme.”

The suit requests monetary penalties and that Live Nation be forced to spin off Ticketmaster — a merger that federal authorities allowed to go forward in the face of competitive concerns in 2010.

In an email, Live Nation Entertainment rejected the allegations.

“The DOJ’s lawsuit won’t solve the issues fans care about relating to ticket prices, service fees, and access to in-demand shows,” the company said in an email. “Calling Ticketmaster a monopoly may be a PR win for the DOJ in the short term, but it will lose in court because it ignores the basic economics of live entertainment, such as the fact that the bulk of service fees go to venues, and that competition has steadily eroded Ticketmaster’s market share and profit margin.”

The company added, “Our growth comes from helping artists tour globally, creating lasting memories for millions of fans, and supporting local economies across the country by sustaining quality jobs. We will defend against these baseless allegations, use this opportunity to shed light on the industry, and continue to push for reforms that truly protect consumers and artists.”

The suit, which alleges that Live Nation’s conduct violates the federal Sherman Antitrust Act , is intended to protect fans and artists alike, said Attorney General Merrick Garland.

“We allege that Live Nation relies on unlawful, anticompetitive conduct to exercise its monopolistic control over the live events industry in the United States at the cost of fans, artists, smaller promoters, and venue operators,” Garland said in a written statement. “The result is that fans pay more in fees, artists have fewer opportunities to play concerts, smaller promoters get squeezed out, and venues have fewer real choices for ticketing services. It is time to break up Live Nation-Ticketmaster.”

The suit also says the company’s conduct violates Ohio’s Valentine Act .

Yost, who is himself an amateur musician, said people in his state deserve better than what they’ve been getting from Live Nation.

“Ohioans deserve transparency, fair prices and vibrant competition,” he said in a written statement. “This lawsuit is a critical step toward dismantling the stranglehold that Live Nation and Ticketmaster have on the market and ensuring that consumers and businesses are no longer at their mercy.”

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