DOJ to seek an antitrust suit against Live Nation: Reports

According to Bloomberg reports, US Department of Justice (DOJ) officials could be ready to present an antitrust case against concert promoter and ticket seller Live Nation Entertainment (LYV).

Yahoo Finance Reporter Alexandra Canal joins Morning Brief to explain the extent of a possible antitrust lawsuit as ticket prices in the live concert industry have spiked in years following Live Nation's merger with Ticketmaster in 2010.

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Morning Brief.

This post was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.

Video transcript

The justice department is seeking to launch an antitrust lawsuit against live Nation, the owner of Ticketmaster as soon as today.

According to several reports, shares are falling on the news and the suit will accuse the ticketing giant of illegally monopolizing the live entertainment industry.

Yahoo Finance's Alexandra Canal has the detail for us.

Hey, hi, Brad.

And this is something we knew would be coming.

There have been multiple reports leading up to this after the justice department launched a two year investigation into the company.

According to these reports, the DOJ is expected to sue Live Nation over its anti competitive business practices alleging the company has weakened consumer choice in the process.

The DOJ just announced a press conference at 11 a.m. Eastern where it is expected to make a quote anti trust announcements.

We will likely see the specific claims in the coming hours but zooming out here, the federal government did approve the Live Nation Master murder back in 2010 since then though the company has been at the center of antitrust concerns including accusations of sky high fees, monopolistic practices and anti competitive behavior.

If you recall the Taylor swift ticketing fiasco back in 2022 that set off quite a few alarm bells with the Senate judiciary committee holding a hearing at the start of last year.

Now, at that hearing, there were multiple calls to break up company.

Although experts that I've spoken with have told me that wouldn't necessarily solve the problem surrounding the unregulated secondary ticket market.

So lots of moving parts here and analyst previously told me that live Nation would quote, be a shell of itself without ticket master.

Since that's the entity that makes the bulk of the profits.

Again, a lawsuit expected by the justice department in the coming hours, shares are down more than 5% just before the opening bell.