The feds vowed Thursday to break up music industry behemoth Live Nation after concert-goers have been complaining for years about ridiculously high fees and impossible-to-get tickets, most notably with Taylor Swift’s recent Eras tour.
Attorney General Merrick Garland announced that the Department of Justice, along with 30 states, had filed an antitrust lawsuit alleging that Live Nation, the parent company of Ticketmaster, “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.”
“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,” Garland said in a statement. “It is time to break up Live Nation-Ticketmaster.”
