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Legal
Live Nation sued over monopoly allegations
By CMU Editorial | Published on Monday 15 June 2009
Yet another development in the ongoing efforts of Live Nation and Ticketmaster to merge. Now an independent American concert promoter has launched legal proceedings against the former alleging the live music conglom has abused its near monopoly in the live music market in a bid to make it impossible for him to compete.
The timing of Seth Hurwitz’s litigation is surely no coincidence – the last thing Live Nation will want as its merger proposals are investigated by US competition officials is a lawsuit claiming the firm is already too dominant in the live music sector without even merging with the world’s biggest ticketing agency and one of the US’s most powerful artist management companies.
Hurwitz owns two Maryland-based live music firms, It’s My Party and It’s My Amphitheatre, or IMP and IMA, and alleges that Live Nation has abused its market dominance to force artists to only appear at venues they manage or own. That, Hurwitz argues, is anti-competitive behaviour.
He claims Live Nation’s “abuse of its monopoly power” has forced artists who had previously worked with him, and performed at venues he operates, to cut ties with his companies. Or, I think, to insist tours he promotes for them visit only Live Nation owned facilities, which puts him in a weak position when negotiating venue hire rates with the live music major.
Confirming his lawsuit, Hurwitz told reporters: “At this point I am going to let the suit, which we have been preparing for more than a year, speak for itself. It says it all and I would prefer people read it and fully understand the claims we are making. But, basically, we contend that the essence of the tour deal is to use monopoly power to force artists to play only for Live Nation venues and where they wouldn’t otherwise, to the detriment of concertgoers, independent promoters and the artists”.
He added: “There is a huge difference between enticing artists to play your venues by doing a better job, versus forcing them to play your venues by controlling the market and the acts. Live Nation has attempted to portray this as evolution into a better business model, but we contend that it is intended to prevent fair legitimate competition, which is illegal. All I want is the opportunity to compete fairly, and we are asking the court to give us that opportunity”.
As previously reported, the Live Nation/Ticketmaster merger is to be investigated by UK competition officials after a complaint submitted by one of Ticketmaster’s European rivals to the Office Of Fair Trading.
