Ticketmaster

Ticketmaster was founded by a group of college staffers and a businessman in 1976 as a company that sold ticketing hardware. By 1985, the company had moved its headquarters to Los Angeles, switched to computerized ticketing, and ran operations beyond the U.S. in Europe and Canada. In the early 2000s, Ticketmaster acquired various competitors, which helped the company dominate the live entertainment market. In 2009, Ticketmaster merged with event promoter Live Nation in a controversial move. The U.S Department of Justice approved the merger a year later with conditions, including one that would enforce the companies to preserve competition. 

Over the years, Ticketmaster has faced criticism for its deceptive pricing, alleged anti-trust violations, and fraud. Several fan bases of major musicians like Taylor Swift and Drake have filed class action lawsuits against the company after grueling experiences trying to purchase concert tickets. For the online pre-sale date of Swift’s highly-anticipated The Eras Tour, Ticketmaster’s official website crashed, causing a calamitous situation that stopped thousands of fans from being able to purchase tickets. Subsequently, the U.S. Senate held a committee hearing to discuss “the long-simmering dissatisfaction over the 2010 consent decree governing the merger of Ticketmaster and Live Nation.”

In 2024, the U.S. DOJ filed an antitrust lawsuit, in conjunction with 29 states and the District of Columbia, against Live Nation and Ticketmaster. “We allege that Live Nation has illegally monopolized markets across the live concert industry in the United States for far too long,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said during a press conference. “It is time to break it up.”