Two Live Nation employees bragged about slapping customers with exorbitant fees at the entertainment giant’s venues, saying “these people are so stupid” that “I almost feel bad taking advantage of them,” according to court documents released late Wednesday.
Live Nation – which owns Ticketmaster, the company accused of gouging ticket prices for Taylor Swift fans and other concertgoers – earlier this week reached a surprise settlement with the Justice Department, though several state attorneys general are still pursuing legal action.
In a series of Slack messages from 2021 through 2023, Ben Baker and Jeff Weinhold – then regional directors of ticketing – gloated about hiking “ancillary fees” for parking and VIP packages to sky-high levels, court exhibits showed.
Messages showed Weinhold boasting about charging $250 for VIP parking at a Virginia venue and Baker gleefully recounting charging “$50 to park in the grass” and “$60 for closer grass” at another venue.
“These people are so stupid,” Baker wrote. “I almost feel bad taking advantage of them.”
In a conversation from 2022, the pair discussed the annual growth of “premier parking” at an unspecified venue, which hit $660,000 in 2021, according to a financial table in the chat.
“Robbing them blind, baby,” Baker wrote. “That’s how we do.”
Later in that same Slack channel, the pair discussed base prices for seats at shows, and Baker wrote, “I gouge them on ancil prices to make up for it.”
Live Nation sought to distance itself from the outrageous remarks.
“The Slack exchange from one junior staffer to a friend absolutely doesn’t reflect our values or how we operate,” a company spokesperson told The Post in a statement. “Because this was a private Slack message, leadership learned of this when the public did, and will be looking into the matter promptly.”
Baker, who was a regional director at the time of the Slack messages, has since been promoted to the head of ticketing for Live Nation’s 150 amphitheaters and was slated to testify in court this week, according to a court filing.
His testimony was postponed after the Department of Justice reached a settlement Monday with Live Nation that could allow it to avoid a sale of Ticketmaster amid allegations it controlled an illegal monopoly.
The company told The Post that it would cap fees at its amphitheaters at 15% and that it has invested $1 billion in US venues over the last 18 months.
US District Judge Arun Subramanian told a group of state attorneys general who did not accept the settlement to reach their own agreement or prepare to continue the trial with the same jury on Monday.
Last week, Live Nation sought to block the release of the internal Slack messages, arguing they were “irrelevant” and their only purpose was to paint the company in an “unflattering light and inflame the jury.”
The messages between Baker and Weinhold represented “off-the-cuff banter” between friends, “not policy, decision-making, or facts of consequence,” the company stated.
State attorneys general argued that the ancillary fees mentioned in the Slack messages are a tool the company uses “to degrade the fan experience by charging excessive prices…without fear of artists switching away,” according to court documents.
Subramanian ordered the court documents be made public after a request filed jointly this week by several news organizations.
The Post has attempted to reach Baker and Weinhold for comment.
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