Two years after enraged Taylor Swift fans were blocked from buying tickets to her upcoming "Eras Tour," the Department of Justice is seeking to break up what they view as a dominant cloud over the ticket-selling industry.
The DOJ is seeking to break up Live Nation, claiming the entertainment company acts as a monopoly due to its control of hundreds of concert venues and owning Ticketmaster, the dominant ticket selling company.
The lawsuit will ask a federal judge to undo the 2010 merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster.
"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," Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.
Live Nation has at least a 50% market share in concert promotion, while Ticketmaster controls more than 80% of ticket sales at large venues, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The company has exclusive ticketing contracts with many of venues where the biggest acts like Taylor Swift perform.
Ticketmaster famously angered the singer's fans with a botched ticket presale in 2022 for her "Eras Tour."
The company has also been under fire for the fees it charges but Live Nation says that is misguided.
"There is a common perception that service charges are 'junk fees' and that Ticketmaster sets the fees and pockets the money," Live Nation said in a blog post earlier this month. "That's not true."
It claims it makes about 2% profit off the average ticket. It claims its fees are lower than other businesses like Uber and Airbnb.
30 states have joined the DOJ lawsuit that was filed Thursday morning.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
