'The concert ticket industry is broken,' justice department says as Ticketmaster trial begins [View all]

Source: The Guardian/Reuters

Tue 3 Mar 2026 13.12 EST
Last modified on Tue 3 Mar 2026 13.56 EST


Ticketmaster keeps an average of $7.58 of the price of each ticket for events at major concert venues, an attorney for New York state told jurors at a trial on Tuesday in which dozens of states are seeking to recoup damages for fans.

Ticketmaster and its parent company, Live Nation, are accused of abusing their market power to prop up illegal monopolies in the concert industry. The trial in Manhattan could result in the US Department of Justice arguing for a breakup of Live Nation and Ticketmaster or the companies paying compensation to ticket purchasers.

The DoJ and the attorneys general of New York and 38 other states plus Washington DC claim the entertainment conglomerate dominates live-event markets in ways that hurt artists, venues and fans. “Today, the concert ticket industry is broken, in fact the concert industry itself is broken,” DoJ attorney David Dahlquist told jurors in his opening statement. “It is controlled by a monopolist. It is controlled by Live Nation.”

Ticketmaster keeps more in fees than competitors such as AXS, according to an expert’s estimate cited by Jonathan Hatch, an attorney for New York state. Fans in the states seeking damages are estimated to have overpaid between $1.56 and $1.72 for tickets, Hatch said. “We are talking about real money coming out of people’s wallets,” he said.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/mar/03/ticketmaster-trial-begins-concert-tickets