Live Nation, Ticketmaster Must Face Massive Class Action Over Ticket Prices, Judge Rules
A federal judge in California ruled Friday that Live Nation and Ticketmaster must face a sweeping class action lawsuit that could involve damages over a 15-year period tied to more than 400 million ticket purchases.
The lawsuit accuses Live Nation and its Ticketmaster subsidiary of violating antitrust laws by monopolizing ticketing services and inflating prices for concerts and other major events across the United States.
U.S. District Judge George Wu issued the ruling in Los Angeles, finding that plaintiffs had met the legal standard to certify a class action. The decision allows millions of consumers who bought tickets from Ticketmaster or a Live Nation affiliate since 2010 to join the suit.
The 2022 lawsuit alleges that Live Nation used its dominant position in the market to impose excessive fees and eliminate competition, harming consumers in the process. The company has consistently denied any wrongdoing.
In an effort to block the class certification, Live Nation argued that the nature of the fees varied too much between events and venues to justify a single trial. The company claimed that individual circumstances at over 1,000 different venues would make it impossible to resolve the allegations collectively.
Live Nation also maintained that many of the fees in question were set by the venues themselves — not Ticketmaster — and often changed on a show-by-show basis.
The judge disagreed, at least at this stage, and allowed the class action to proceed.
This case is one of several legal battles currently facing Live Nation. In October, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the company’s appeal to move the lawsuit into private arbitration. Separately, the U.S. Department of Justice and a coalition of states filed a major antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation in federal court in Manhattan earlier this year. The company has denied wrongdoing in that case as well.
The class action in California could end up being one of the most consequential antitrust cases in the entertainment industry in years, potentially exposing Live Nation and Ticketmaster to billions in damages if successful.