Live Nation, Ticketmaster vow to fight breakup after monopoly verdict
Live Nation Entertainment says it knows many music and sports fans hate the company and blame it — and subsidiary Ticketmaster — for sky-high ticket prices.
But the executive vice-president of the world’s largest entertainment company insists the conglomerate is not a monopoly and should not be broken up.
“[Fans] have frustrations about the live entertainment market and they associate it especially with Ticketmaster because most people buy their tickets from Ticketmaster,” Dan Wall told CBC News in a wide-ranging interview at Live Nation’s offices in New York.
But Wall defended his company and said he will fight moves to split up Ticketmaster and Live Nation after a recent landmark verdict by a U.S. federal jury.
On April 15, after a six-week trial on anti-trust allegations, the jury found Ticketmaster and Live Nation liable on multiple counts, including operating an anti-competitive monopoly and unlawfully tying together tour promotions, ticketing and operation of venues.
Live Nation executive vice-president Dan Wall says the U.S. federal jury verdict found the company did not monopolize the ‘whole’ primary ticketing market, and is ‘confident’ that, in time, courts will also find that it is not a monopoly.
“It’s frustrating,” Wall said. “I think it’s pretty clear that the states who brought the case along with the federal government asked for a jury trial because it’s a lot easier to win a jury trial than it is a [judge alone] trial in a case like this, particularly against a big corporation. And I’m not happy with the verdict, of course.”
Wall told CBC News that, if necessary, Live Nation will appeal the verdict arguing the plaintiff Attorneys General for 33 states and Washington, D.C. only presented evidence that Ticketmaster corners 20 per cent of the primary ticketing market.
“I don’t call that a monopoly. And I’m actually confident that over time, the courts won’t call that a monopoly,” he said.
Lawyers were back in a New York courtroom Thursday debating how the penalties phase of the case should proceed.
A U.S. jury has found that ticket giants Live Nation and Ticketmaster held an illegal monopoly on ticket sales in several U.S. states. The verdict could cost Live Nation and Ticketmaster hundreds of millions of dollars.
White House meeting
Wall acknowledges that Live Nation’s CEO Michael Rapino met with officials in the Trump White House earlier this year and hammered out a settlement with the federal Department of Justice (DOJ) that would avoid splitting up the company.
But dozens of states refused to go along with the deal and continued the lawsuit seeking stiffer penalties including a potential breakup.
Richard Blumenthal, U.S. Senator from Connecticut and Democrat who conducted a subcommittee…
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