(HYPEBOT)—Live Nation and Ticketmaster were hit by a consumer class action lawsuit on Thursday. The lawsuit piggybacked on the US Department of Justice antitrust case filed earlier in the week.
The first of what will likely be a wave of related lawsuits was filed in Manhattan Federal Court seeking $5 billion in damages on behalf of potentially millions of ticket buyers.
If the number of consumer cases grows quickly, it will add legal pressure on the concert and ticketing giant at a time when it is battling the DoJ for the right to remain a combined company.
“Over the past three decades, Live Nation and Ticketmaster collectively built empires in several key markets within the live concert and event economy,” the new suit alleges. “Live Nation grew into a concert and event promotion behemoth, and Ticketmaster captured the primary and secondary markets for concert and event ticket sales in the United States.”
“As a result of this merger,” the filing continues, “the new entity now dominates three major economic markets in the United States: (1) concert promotion for major concert venues, (2) primary ticketing services for major concert venues1 and (3) secondary ticketing services for major concert venues.”
Bruce Houghton is the Founder and Editor of Hypebot, a Senior Advisor at Bandsintown, President of the Skyline Artists Agency, and a Berklee College Of Music professor.
