• The US DOJ has filed a lawsuit claiming that Ticketmaster’s non-transferable SafeTix is anticompetitive, and ten states have now signed on to the antitrust lawsuit against Ticketmaster.
  • The complaint was amended on Monday after 10 states joined the Justice Department’s lawsuit, citing internal Ticketmaster documents obtained during the legal proceedings.

OUR TAKE
As a result of Ticketmaster’s behaviour, consumers have paid more and will continue to pay more in relation to tickets to live events than they would have to in a free and open competitive market. As a result of this, the Government should take timely measures to intervene in the behaviour of companies with monopolistic tendencies in order to ensure the stability of the market as a whole.
— Iydia Ding, BTW reporter

What happened

Citing internal Ticketmaster documents obtained in legal proceedings, the US DOJ has filed a formal lawsuit claiming that Ticketmaster’s non-transferable “SafeTix” is anti-competitive. As of Monday, ten states have signed on to the antitrust lawsuit against Ticketmaster.

Back in 2019, Ticketmaster introduced SafeTix, which replaced the static barcode on e-tickets with an encrypted barcode that refreshes every 15 seconds. Ticketmaster marketed SafeTix as a way to reduce ticket fraud, but the complaint alleges that the reduction of competition was the “primary motivation” for the new ticketing system.

Ticketmaster’s real intent in pushing for non-transferable tickets is to make it harder for fans to use rival platforms such as StubHub and SeatGeek, and this is the latest complaint in the DOJ’s antitrust lawsuit against Ticketmaster and its parent company Live Nation.

The U.S. Department of Justice claims that as a result of Ticketmaster’s conduct, consumers have paid more and will continue to pay more in connection with live event tickets than they would have to in a free and open competitive market. The exact amount of monetary damages is still unknown and would need to be discovered from Ticketmaster and Live Nation’s books, as well as from its third-party competitors, the suit says.

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Why it’s important

An internal Live Nation document cited in the Complaint states that Ticketmaster is the primary ticketing agent for approximately 80% of the nation’s arenas that host NBA or NHL teams. According to internal Live Nation events cited in the complaint, Live Nation promotes 70% of all amphitheatre shows nationwide as of 2022. Preventing the business from further suppressing related businesses is critical to maintaining fair competition in the marketplace.

Its behaviour has been sufficient to exert pressure on most similar sectors of the industry nationwide, a situation that will ultimately affect the order and stability of the entire ticket vendor market if the government does not adjust. By ensuring that market players participate in competition on an equal footing, antitrust policies help to optimise the allocation of resources, improve economic efficiency and prevent the uncontrolled expansion of capital, thereby promoting sustainable economic development.