Concert giant Live Nation has slammed comments made by AEG Presents Chairman and CEO Jay Marciano about the antitrust lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice against Live Nation last month.
In a memo obtained by MBW dated May 31, Marciano referred to AEG Presents rival Live Nation and its ticketing division Ticketmaster as a “monopoly”.
He also suggested that Live Nation’s exclusive ticketing contracts “block competition and innovation and result in higher ticketing fees, denying artists the ability to choose who will ticket their shows and how much their fans should pay”.
AEG Presents is the live events arm of Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG), and the second-biggest live music promoter in the world behind Live Nation. AEG also owns ticketing provider AXS.
Marciano’s comments arrived a week after US Justice Department, along with 30 state and district attorneys general, filed a civil antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation Entertainment and Ticketmaster.
“AEG has long maintained that Ticketmaster has a monopoly in the US ticketing marketplace and uses that monopoly power to subsidize Live Nation’s content businesses, preventing other businesses from competing in those areas and leaving consumers to suffer the consequences,” Marciano wrote in the memo, which you can read in full here.
Marciano added: “This lawsuit is not simply DOJ suing to break up a monopoly; at stake is the entire ecosystem of our industry, one that has long suffered from a badly broken ticketing model.
“As you know, the cornerstone of Live Nation’s monopoly is Ticketmaster’s exclusive ticketing contracts with the vast majority of major concert venues in the United States. These agreements block competition and innovation and result in higher ticketing fees, denying artists the ability to choose who will ticket their shows and how much their fans should pay.”
In a statement issued to MBW in response to the comments made in Marciano’s memo, Live Nation executive Dan Wall suggested the AEG boss’s arguments are “self-serving” and should be “ignored.”
Wall is Live Nation’s Executive Vice President, Corporate and Regulatory Affairs.
He officially joined Live Nation in February 2023, having served as “a key advisor” to the company for more than 12 years, previously providing guidance as lead outside counsel while a partner at global law firm Latham & Watkins.
Here is Wall’s statement in full:
“This is why antitrust protects competition, not competitors trying to use the courts to advance their own interests. AEG supports this case – indeed, begged DOJ to file it – because it doesn’t want to pay artists market rates or convince venues to adopt its second-rate ticketing system exclusively.
“Its complaints about service charges are hypocritical since it could lower AXS service charges today if it really cared about that. Self-serving arguments like these are common in antitrust cases, but rightly ignored.”
“AEG supports this case – indeed, begged DOJ to file it – because it doesn’t want to pay artists market rates or convince venues to adopt its second-rate ticketing system exclusively.”
Dan Wall, Live NAtion
The DoJ’s complaint against Live Nation was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on May 23.
It alleges that Live Nation “unlawfully exercises its monopoly power” in violation of Section 2 of the Sherman Act.
As a result of its alleged conduct, the DOJ says that “music fans in the United States are deprived of ticketing innovation and forced to use outdated technology while paying more for tickets than fans in other countries”.
Additionally, the DOJ claims that “Live Nation-Ticketmaster exercises its power over performers, venues, and independent promoters in ways that harm competition. Live Nation-Ticketmaster also imposes barriers to competition that limit the entry and expansion of its rivals”.Music Business Worldwide
