Concert goers celebrated the Justice Department’s lawsuit against Live Nation and its subsidiary Ticketmaster on Thursday, which has long been accused of monopolistic practices that have enabled it to get a stranglehold on the ticketing of live events in the US.
Music lovers took to social media to wonder why it took the government so long to act against Live Nation — particularly in light of frequent complaints from ticket purchasers that they fell victim to alleged price gouging by the company.
An Australia-based fan of Aerosmith took to Reddit to complain about the exorbitant fees that he says he had to pay for two tickets to the band’s upcoming New Year’s Eve concert in Boston.
“For a concert I expect to pay $10 or so for fees,” the Reddit user who goes by the name “scottywiper” wrote.
He said that after buying two tickets to the Aerosmith show in Boston, he was forced to pay fees which exceeded $120.
“WTF! Tickets were $311, cost for two was $770,” he wrote, adding: “Unimpressed.”
William Pierre-Louis, a Washington, DC-based public policy analyst, posted a screenshot of a purchase for $49.50 for a ticket to see R&B performer Tank at The Theater at MGM National in nearby Maryland.
“The price for one ticket was $49.50. When I tried to check out, the total quickly went up to $71.00,” Pierre-Louis wrote on X.
“Seriously, how is this okay?”
Another commenter on Reddit wrote that he wanted to buy tickets for Ringling Bros. Circus for him and his girlfriend.
While the face value of the seats were $35 apiece, the final amount he ended up paying — including fees and taxes — was $113.
“What in the actual f–k,” he wrote.
Live Nation has denied the government’s allegations that it is a monopoly.
The company released a statement on its website on Thursday saying that the lawsuit “won’t reduce ticket prices or service fees.”
“[The DOJ complaint] blames concert promoters and ticketing companies — neither of which control ticket prices — for high ticket prices,” Live Nation said in its statement.
The company said that the Justice Department is ignoring “everything that is actually responsible for higher ticket prices, from increasing production costs to artist popularity, to 24/7 online ticket scalping that reveals the public’s willingness to pay far more than primary tickets cost.”
Ticketmaster “retains only a modest portion of” the service fees, according to the statement.
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