US opened Live Nation probe before Taylor Swift ticket fiasco

By Leah Nylen

The Justice Department is probing Live Nation Entertainment Inc. and its Ticketmaster unit over whether the entertainment giant is abusing its power over the live music industry, three people familiar with the investigation said.

The probe comes amid a debacle for the ticketing giant, which was forced to cancel public sales for Taylor Swift’s upcoming tour after its site crashed earlier in the week during massive presale demand.

Shares of Live Nation Entertainment fell as much as 9.5% after the New York Times reported on the probe earlier Friday, and was down 7.3% to $66.49 as of 3:44 p.m. in New York.

The antitrust investigation began earlier this year, before the Swift ticketing fiasco. It was based on complaints by live event venues and ticketing companies, the people said, asking not to be named discussing a confidential probe.

The new probe is separate from court-ordered monitoring of Ticketmaster that the government imposed in 2019 in response to previous antitrust complaints.

The Justice Department declined to comment. Ticketmaster and LiveNation didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Scrutiny of Ticketmaster is building based on a rising chorus of complaints in recent months. The attorneys general of North Carolina and Tennessee said they were investigating consumer complaints over Ticketmaster and the Senate plans to have a hearing about it next month chaired by Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota.

Live Nation, the world’s largest concert promoter, acquired Ticketmaster, the largest ticketing site in 2010, in a deal that received close scrutiny from regulators. The Justice Department approved the merger in a 2010 settlement that required Ticketmaster to license its ticketing software and divest some ticketing assets. In 2019, the DOJ’s antitrust division found that Live Nation and Ticketmaster violated the terms of that settlement and imposed new conditions, including an ongoing monitor.

Ticketmaster has perennially fielded complaints from fans and politicians about the price and availability of concert tickets. This summer the company came under fire when some seats for Bruce Springsteen shows were sold for thousands of dollars, using the company’s dynamic pricing mechanism. Ticketmaster said the highest-priced tickets accounted for a relatively small number of seats.

Swift’s concert sales fiasco has rekindled the ire. Many would-be concertgoers were approved by Ticketmaster’s verified fan process, which is designed to weed out ticket scalpers, only to find they were put on a waitlist. Others saw the site crash when they tried to buy tickets. The company ended up canceling sales to the general public, which were originally scheduled for Friday, citing unprecedented demand and limited supply.

Swift said the bungled presale for her upcoming “Eras Tour” concerts, was “excruciating” and that it was difficult to “watch mistakes happen with no recourse.”

Live Nation isn’t the promoter of the Swift shows, that’s done by AEG and Messina Touring Group. Nor is Ticketmaster the only seller. Swift added concerts in recent weeks to meet the demand. The artist hasn’t toured in years, and the album she released last month, Midnights, has been another strong seller.

— With assistance from Ashley Carman