The Case For Breaking Up Ticketmaster, ‘The Monopoly Of Our Time That Everybody Hates’

The Justice Department filed a long-awaited antitrust lawsuit against Ticketmaster and parent company Live Nation on Thursday, seeking to break up what officials call an unlawful monopoly that’s squeezing artists, promoters and venues while jacking up prices for fans.

Two days before the suit was filed, one of the “architects” of President Joe Biden’s antitrust agenda made a concise and plainspoken case for why the administration should pursue it.

Tim Wu, former special assistant to the president for technology and competition policy, was speaking to a gathering of antitrust hawks at the American Economic Liberties Project’s Anti-Monopoly Summit in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. When the discussion turned to Ticketmaster and Live Nation, Wu called it “the monopoly of our time that everybody hates.”

He argued that if any modern company should be targeted for antitrust enforcement, it should be Ticketmaster-Live Nation, and that pursuing such a case was a matter of following “popular will”:

Watch Wu’s remarks in full above, courtesy of the American Economic Liberties Project.

The Justice Department’s lawsuit accuses Ticketmaster-Live Nation of muscling out rivals in the live events market, retaliating against venues that don’t play along, locking out competition with exclusive contracts and bullying artists into using their promotional services. The agency was joined by 30 state and district attorneys general in filing the complaint.

If the suit succeeds, a judge could force the company to divest certain parts of its business. Jonathan Kanter, head of DOJ’s antitrust division, said in a statement Thursday that the goal was to “restore competition for the benefit of fans and artists.”

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