(NewsNation) — The U.S. Department of Justice is preparing to file an antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation, the parent company of Ticketmaster, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing sources familiar with the matter.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the DOJ could file as soon as next month. However, the DOJ’s timing is unclear, a familiar source with the DOJ’s plans told Axios.
Live Nation, one of the largest ticketing and live event companies, and Ticketmaster have faced scrutiny over its alleged dominance in the ticketing industry.
The demand for online presale of tickets for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour in 2022 highlighted the firm’s alleged dominance of raising prices on live entertainment. The presale was supposed to be available only to people with a specific code, but Ticketmaster said bots and others without a code logged on anyway.
This led to tickets being resold for out-of-control prices, and Ticketmaster canceled the general public sale. The company cited the extraordinarily high demand and insufficient remaining ticket inventory to meet that demand. Some fans sued the platform and Live Nation following the incident.
During that time, the DOJ was reportedly already investigating the company. Since then, lawmakers have questioned whether Live Nation engaged in anticompetitive practices.
In 2010, the DOJ approved Live Nation’s acquisition of Ticketmaster, following an antitrust investigation. Instead of suing to block the deal, the DOJ barred Live Nation from pressing concert venues to use its ticketing software through a consent decree.
Live Nation emphasized there’s plenty of competition in the ticketing industry despite lawmakers’ concerns.