Ticketmaster and Live Nation face new lawsuit over market dominance

Ticketmaster and parent company Live Nation are being sued again over claims that they're continuing to violate antitrust laws. 

As reported by Billboard, the companies are facing another lawsuit with added accusations. It claims they're monopolising the concert tickets marketplace and engaging in "predatory" behaviour, as well as putting arbitration agreements on customers.

The new lawsuit was filed on Tuesday, January 4th and follows a previous lawsuit, filed by the same attorneys, in 2020. The case argues that Ticketmaster's dominance in the market and Live Nation's massive influence over touring mean the combined entity are able to bully venues and charge "extraordinarily high" prices.

"Defendants' anticompetitive scheme has been wildly successful and today threatens to put nearly all ticketing services for major concert venues… under Ticketmaster’s monopolistic thumb," attorneys at Quinn Emanuel, which represents the consumers suing the two companies, stated. They are representing a nationwide group of customers who all purchased tickets from Ticketmaster, and could reach to "hundreds if thousands if not millions" of people.

It's a second bite of the cherry for Quinn Emanuel: a ruling last year threw out their 2020 case against Ticketmaster on procedural grounds. Back then, a federal judge decided that when plaintiffs purchased their tickets, they had agreed to settle any disputes with Ticketmaster via private arbitration rather than in open court.

That's why this week's new lawsuit adds accusations about the arbitration agreements, including claims that Ticketmaster has recently started using new language that’s even more unfair to consumers.

"The (new) agreement… requires consumers to engage in a novel and one-sided process that is tailored to disadvantage consumers," the Quinn Emanuel attorneys state. "The … agreement skews the odds so egregiously in defendants’ favor through its defense-biased provisions, and is imposed in such a procedurally unfair manner, that it is permeated with unconscionability to a far greater degree than the prior … agreement."

Ticketmaster and Live Nation have yet to comment on the lawsuit.

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