Keller Postman represents consumers who had to pay excessive fees to buy concert tickets through Ticketmaster. The consumers are bringing antitrust claims against Ticketmaster and its parent company Live Nation Entertainment, alleging that the companies are able to extract such excessive fees from their customers because they dominate the concert promotion and ticketing markets, allowing them to force concert venues to sell tickets to their events exclusively through Ticketmaster. This ultimately leaves consumers no choice but to pay Ticketmaster’s high fees because there is nowhere else to go to buy tickets to the concerts they want to attend.
When Ticketmaster merged with Live Nation Entertainment in 2010, the U.S. Department of Justice took notice. The combined entity would dominate the concert promotion and concert ticketing markets.
To win approval for the merger, Ticketmaster and Live Nation Entertainment agreed not to wield that dominance to hurt consumers. In particular, the companies agreed that they would not force concert venues to use Ticketmaster to sell their tickets.
But that is exactly what the companies proceeded to do. Live Nation Entertainment’s CEO and President publicly admitted that, if a concert venue wants to use a ticketing service provider other than Ticketmaster, the venue “won’t be the best economic place anymore because we don’t hold the revenue.” In other words, Live Nation Entertainment signaled to concert venues that it would not route major concert tours through them if Ticketmaster does not provide primary ticketing services there. Concert venues needed Live Nation’s concert tours to take place there and had to agree to sell their tickets through Ticketmaster.
The result is what every music fan and enthusiast knows: to get tickets to live music concerts and major concert venues, you have to buy tickets from Ticketmaster, and you have to put up with the excessive fees Ticketmaster charges you.
To remedy this wrong, Keller Postman is pursuing litigation on behalf of clients who seek to stop the anticompetitive practices employed by Ticketmaster and Live Nation and to restore fair competition to these industries.
Once it knew antitrust lawsuits were coming, Ticketmaster and Live Nation put another obstacle in the way by requiring every consumer to sign an agreement to arbitrate disputes with a brand new arbitration forum. The just-written rules of these arbitrations are unfair, slanting heavily toward Ticketmaster and Live Nation. Keller Postman’s first step is arguing the agreement to arbitrate is unconscionable, a contract defense that, if successful, will allow the claims to proceed in open court.
Meet the attorneys leading the Ticketmaster litigation.
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