SEATTLE — Attorney General Bob Ferguson said Washington state is partnering with 29 other states and the U.S. Department of Justice in an antitrust lawsuit against Ticketmaster and Live Nation.
The lawsuit accuses the companies of creating an unlawful monopoly and seeks to break them up. It also asks the court to impose civil penalties. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
The attorney general’s office said the companies “used their dominance to undermine competition” driving up ticket prices, which it said violates the Sherman Antitrust Act.
“Ticketmaster’s own internal documents claim it accounts for 70% to 80% of primary concert tickets in North America. Live Nation owns, operates or has significant influence over more than 250 venues in North America, including more than 60 of the top 100 amphitheaters in the United States,” the attorney general’s office said in a statement.
Live Nation manages the Gorge Amphitheatre, RV Inn Style Resorts Amphitheater in Ridgefield and White River Amphitheater.
“Free enterprise is built on companies competing,” Ferguson said. “Instead, these industry leaders squeezed out the competition to increase their profits, at the expense of fans. My office is partnering with this bipartisan coalition to put an end to this monopoly.”
Ticketmaster and Live Nation merged in 2010 and have long been criticized over their ticket prices, most recently during Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, where in some instances Swifties paid 70 times above face value.
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