WASHINGTON — The Justice Department on Thursday sued Live Nation Entertainment, the concert giant that owns Ticketmaster, asking a court to break up the company over claims it illegally maintained a monopoly in the live entertainment industry.
In the lawsuit, which is joined by 29 states and the District of Columbia, the government accuses Live Nation of leveraging its sprawling empire to dominate the industry by locking venues into exclusive ticketing contracts, pressuring artists to use its services and threatening its rivals with financial retribution.
Those tactics, the government argues, have resulted in higher ticket prices for consumers and have stifled innovation and competition throughout the industry. The suit asks the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York to order “the divestiture of, at minimum, Ticketmaster,” and to prevent Live Nation from engaging in anticompetitive practices.
It is time for fans and artists to stop paying the price for Live Nation’s monopoly,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said Thursday. “It is time to break up Live Nation-Ticketmaster. The American people are ready for it.”
The suit is part of a broader push by U.S. regulators to rein in corporate might in the internet age, testing century-old antitrust laws against big companies’ power over consumers. The Justice Department has sued Apple and brought two cases against Google, while the Federal Trade Commission has brought antitrust suits against Amazon and Meta.