Live Nation Antitrust Appeal Rejected by Supreme Court

The Supreme Court has declined to hear Live Nation’s appeal in a consumer antitrust case.

The justices let stand an appeals court decision which had found that the ticketing company’s arbitration agreements with customers were “unconscionable” and unenforceable under California law, Bloomberg News reported Monday (Oct. 6).

As the report noted, Live Nation, parent company of Ticketmaster, had been trying to lump cases into group arbitration proceedings run by New Era ADR. By allowing the appeals court decision to stand, the court sets the state for consumers to move forward with their antitrust suit.

Fans of Taylor Swift and other musicians sued Live Nation and Ticketmaster last year, accusing the companies of colluding with other organizations to drive up the price of tickets. The suit alleged that this conduct violates the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, as the organizations colluded in such a way as to become an illegal enterprise.

“This lawsuit is based on false assumptions about how ticketing works. Artist teams, not Ticketmaster, set prices,” a Live National spokesperson told Wired last year. “Live Nation does not own stadiums in the U.S. and primary tickets are consistently priced below market value, as evidenced by resale prices averaging more than double.”

Last month, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and seven states sued Ticketmaster and Live Nation, alleging that they illegally sold event tickets acquired by brokers and deceived consumers and artists about prices and policies.

The complaint alleges that Ticketmaster violated the FTC Act and the Better Online Ticket Sales Act (BOTS Act) by letting brokers buy tickets in the primary market in numbers that surpassed artists’ ticket limits, selling those tickets at a “substantial markup” in the secondary market, and engaging in bait-and-switch pricing that masked mandatory fees.

“President Donald Trump made it clear in his March executive order that the federal government must protect Americans from being ripped off when they buy tickets to live events,” FTC Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson said in a news release.

The U.S. Justice Department last year filed a suit to dismantle Live Nation, alleging antitrust violations and monopolistic practices. As the Bloomberg report noted, Live Nation and Ticketmaster have been heavily scrutinized since their merger in 2010.