HARTFORD, Conn. — Connecticut and dozens of other states joined the legal fight against Ticketmaster and its parent company Live Nation.
"Ticketmaster-Live Nation is a dominant, vertically integrated monopoly. It's time to break them up,” William Tong, CT Attorney General, said.
The Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit Thursday accusing the company of industry dominance and illegally maintaining a monopoly.
RELATED: Justice Department says illegal monopoly by Ticketmaster and Live Nation drives up prices for fans
“We have no effective consumer choice,” Tong said. “There is no competition in the marketplace. We can’t go somewhere else, buy tickets through somebody else.”
Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said the world’s largest concert promoter and ticketing company owns 80% of the market, leaving little room for competition and inflation prices beyond what the average American family can afford.
“To go to a concert this summer, if you have teenagers like I do, I have three kids, hundreds of dollars [per child],” Tong said. “With food and parking and tickets. I don't have several grand for a night out at the Meadowlands, who does? That's what it means. That's what monopoly rents are. That is the price we pay for their control.”
The company’s monopoly power came under scrutiny during the Taylor Swift Era’s Tour, a stressful time for fans when the Ticketmaster site, the only place selling seats for the show, kept crashing.
“I almost missed class in the afternoon because I was sitting on ticket master for hours,” Haley Grayson, a Swift fan from UConn, said at the time.
But once fans got passed the hassle, they saw the shocking price tags.
“I've never spent that much on concert tickets, and then you add all the fees, and it was like, outrageous,” said Margaret Pfohl, who participated in a ticket presale for the Taylor Swift tour.
It’s not just the live music scene that is at Ticketmaster’s mercy, but also sporting events and venues under contract with Live Nation, including Xfinity Oakdale Theater in Wallingford and the Hartford Healthcare Amphitheater in Bridgeport.
“This enforcement action should be music to the ears of consumers—a strong step supporting fair competition. Fans, artists, venues, small promoters and many others will enjoy enormous benefits. For far too long, Live Nation’s exercise of monopolistic control over this industry has boxed out competition, leading to astronomically rising prices and exorbitant hidden fees. The Department identifying unlawful, anticompetitive conduct makes it clear: unwinding the Live Nation-Ticketmaster merger must be on the table,” Sen. Richard Blumental, D-CT, said in a statement.
Live Nation called the DOJ’s allegations “baseless,” disputing claims it runs a monopoly of the industry and adding the artists and teams set ticket prices.
Bridgette Bjorlo is an anchor and reporter at FOX61 News. She can be reached at bbjorlo@fox61.com. Follow her on Facebook, X, and Instagram.
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