The US Department of Justice filed a major antitrust lawsuit on May 23 seeking to break up an alleged monopoly in the live music industry between concert promoter Live Nation Entertainment and its subsidiary, bookings website Ticketmaster.
The lawsuit, filed in a federal court in New York, claims that Live Nation has abused its dominant market position to raise ticket fees, squeeze out competitors and limit choices for fans, venues and artists.
“Live Nation relies on unlawful, anticompetitive conduct to exercise its monopolistic control over the live events industry in the United States at the cost of fans, artists, smaller promoters, and venue operators,” said US Attorney General Merrick Garland in a statement.
Photo: AP 照片：美聯社
“It is time to break up Live Nation.”
Ticketmaster’s pricing practices for concerts and other events, with high fees and lack of alternatives, have long been a political issue in the US, with little done historically to open up the market to more competition.
The latest controversy over Ticketmaster’s dominance came when tickets for Taylor Swift’s Eras tour went on pre-sale in 2022.
Photo: AP 照片：美聯社
Widespread outages and exorbitant fees caused an uproar, with lawmakers in Washington holding hearings to question Live Nation executives over the debacle.
Live Nation, which merged with Ticketmaster in 2010, has grown into a US$22 billion global giant that produces more than 30,000 concerts annually for nearly 500 touring artists across its network of over 265 North American venues.
In a statement, Live Nation said the lawsuit “won’t solve the issues fans care about relating to ticket prices, service fees, and access to in-demand shows.”
Photo: AFP 照片：法新社
“Calling Ticketmaster a monopoly may be a PR win for the DOJ in the short term, but it will lose in court because it ignores the basic economics of live entertainment,” it added.
Threat allegations
The lawsuit detailed allegations of unlawful tactics used by Live Nation to maintain its dominance, including “threatening and retaliating against venues” by signaling they could lose concerts and revenue if they work with rivals.
The 68-page suit described a “self-reinforcing business model” that allows it to capture huge revenues from ticket sales and then use that to lock up artists to exclusive promotion deals.
It then leverages its hold on top performers to lock venues into long-term exclusive ticketing deals.
Because of the monopoly, the DOJ added that US fans were left with “outdated technology” compared to other countries.
Fights against Ticketmaster’s power go back to the 1990s, when the rock band Pearl Jam refused to perform at Ticketmaster venues in protest of its service charges that increased ticket prices.
Ticketmaster was accused of organizing a boycott of Pearl Jam by live venues and the band eventually gave up its campaign against the ticketing giant.
Ticketmaster data breach
A hacking group known as ShinyHunters claimed to have accessed the information of 560 million Ticketmaster customers around the world.
The well-known hacking group posted evidence on May 27 of the hack on the dark web, according to a screenshot shared widely on social media.
The group demanded a ransom payment of US$500,000.
In a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Live Nation Entertainment said on May 31 it had “identified unauthorized activity within a third-party cloud database environment.”
(AFP)
美國司法部5月23日提起一項重大反壟斷訴訟，試圖打破演唱會主辦公司Live Nation Entertainment（理想國演藝）及其子公司售票網站Ticketmaster（票務大師）對現場音樂演出產業的壟斷。
該訴訟向紐約聯邦法院提起，稱Live Nation濫用其市場主導地位來提高售票手續費、排擠競爭對手並限制粉絲、場館及藝人的選項。
美國司法部長梅瑞克．賈蘭德在聲明中表示：「Live Nation以非法、反競爭行為對美國現場演出行業進行壟斷性的控制，犧牲了粉絲、藝人、小型主辦商及場館經營者的利益」。
「該是分拆Live Nation 的時候了」。
Ticketmaster對演唱會及其他演出的訂價方式，費用高昂且缺乏替代方案，在美國長期以來一直是個政治問題，幾乎不曾採取過任何措施來開放市場，容納更多競爭。
對於Ticketmaster主導地位的最近一次爭議，是泰勒絲的「時代世界巡迴演唱會」門票2022年開始預售時。
大規模當機和高額費用引起了軒然大波，華盛頓的國會議員舉行了聽證會，就此次事故向Live Nation高層提出質疑。
Live Nation在2010年與Ticketmaster合併，現已發展成為價值220億美元的全球巨頭，每年在其超過265個北美關係場館為近五百位巡迴演出藝人舉辦三萬多場音樂會。
Live Nation在一份聲明中表示，該訴訟「不會解決粉絲所關心的票價、服務費以及如何搶到票的問題」。
它補充說：「將Ticketmaster稱為壟斷或許是司法部的短期公關勝利，但這在法庭上不會站得住腳，因為它忽視了現場娛樂的基本經濟學」。
威脅指控
該訴訟列出細節，指控Live Nation為維持其主導地位而使用非法手段，包括「威脅及報復場館」，暗示他們若與競爭對手合作，演唱會可能就不會在那裡舉辦，也會失去收入。
這份長達68頁的訴狀描述了一種「自我強化的商業模式」，使其能藉銷售門票獲得巨額收入，然後利用這收入將藝人限制在獨家宣傳合約中。
然後，它利用對大咖演出者的控制，讓場館的售票只能有跟該公司長期獨家合作的選項。
美國司法部補充說，由於壟斷，跟他國相比，美國粉絲所用的是「過時的技術」。
對Ticketmaster權力的抗爭可追溯到1990年代，搖滾樂團Pearl Jam（珍珠果醬樂團）拒絕在Ticketmaster的場館演出，以抗議該公司收取的服務費抬高了門票價格。
Ticketmaster被指控聯合表演場館抵制Pearl Jam，使得該樂團最終放棄對抗這票務巨頭。
Ticketmaster 資料外洩
一個名為ShinyHunters的駭客組織聲稱已取得全球5.6億Ticketmaster 客戶的資訊。
根據社群媒體上被廣為分享的一張截圖，這著名的駭客組織5月27日在暗網上貼出這次駭客攻擊的證據。
該組織要求50萬美元的贖金。
Live Nation Entertainment在5月31日向美國證券交易委員會繳交的一份文件中表示，該公司「在第三方雲端資料庫環境中發現了未經授權的活動」。
（台北時報林俐凱編譯）
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