WSJ: Justice Department will sue Live Nation for antitrust violations
CNN
The US Department of Justice is preparing to sue the country’s largest concert promoter and ticketing website Live Nation in the coming weeks for breaking America’s antitrust laws, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing anonymous sources familiar with the Justice Department’s plans.
The US Department of Justice is preparing to sue the country’s largest concert promoter and ticketing website Live Nation in the coming weeks for breaking America’s antitrust laws, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing anonymous sources familiar with the Justice Department’s plans. The lawsuit against Live Nation Entertainment, the parent company of Ticketmaster, will allege the ticketing company used its market-leading position to harm competition for live events, the Journal reported. But the paper wasn’t able to uncover specific details of the planned lawsuit. Shares of Live Nation (LYV) dropped nearly 7% in premarket trading Tuesday. Live Nation and the Justice Department didn’t respond to CNN’s request for comment about the Journal’s report. Ticketmaster drew the ire of US government officials and fans after a system meltdown left millions of people unable to purchase tickets to Taylor Swift’s “Eras” tour in 2022. US lawmakers grilled Live Nation executives at a hearing in January 2023, which, in a rare event, brought together Democrats and Republicans over the company’s industry dominance that critics argue is harming rivals, musicians and fans. Swift later fans sued Live Nation for “unlawful conduct” in the pop star’s chaotic tour sale, with the plaintiffs claiming that the ticketing giant violated antitrust laws.
The DeepSeek drama may have been briefly eclipsed by, you know, everything in Washington (which, if you can believe it, got even crazier Wednesday). But rest assured that over in Silicon Valley, there has been nonstop, Olympic-level pearl-clutching over this Chinese upstart that managed to singlehandedly wipe out hundreds of billions of dollars in market cap in just a few hours and put America’s mighty tech titans on their heels.
At her first White House briefing, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt made an unusual claim about inflation that has stung American shoppers for years: Leavitt said egg prices have continued to surge because “the Biden administration and the department of agriculture directed the mass killing of more than 100 million chickens, which has led to a lack of chicken supply in this country, therefore lack of egg supply, which is leading to the shortage.”