The peak body for independent venues in the US, NIVA, as well as a number of other companies, have formally objected to the settlement the Department of Justice struck with Live Nation and Ticketmaster, arguing it lets the company hold onto most of its market rather than breaking it up.
The National Independent Venue Association have lodged an objection ahead of the court’s review, alongside Live Nation’s rivals AEG, SeatGeek and TicketNetwork.
AEG says Ticketmaster keeps 85 per cent of the market under the deal, with only around 170 events opened up to competitive bidding. SeatGeek says the settlement does nothing to stop Ticketmaster retaliating against venues that use rival ticketing, pointing to the “retaliation insurance” Ticketmaster has reportedly offered eight venues to cover exactly that risk.
NIVA has gone hardest, calling for Live Nation and Ticketmaster to be split apart altogether, for Live Nation to sell off its artist management arm, and for a hard cap limiting the company to promoting no more than half of any major artist’s tour dates in the US each year. NIVA’s own research found tours promoted solely or mostly by Live Nation made up between 69 and 74 per cent of the top 200 tours over the past three years.
Judge Arun Subramanian now has to decide whether to approve the settlement, which includes a US$280.4 million fund and an eight-year consent decree but no requirement to break the companies up. He’s due to rule sometime between mid-September and mid-October.
It’s the same case ALMBC flagged back in September after the US administration stepped in ahead of the department’s original push to break up Live Nation, and it’s worth watching given how much of Australia’s own touring and ticketing market runs through the same company.
