By Emmanuel Legrand
The US Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division will file a petition asking the court to clarify and extend by five and a half years the 2010 consent decree related to Live Nation and ticketing company Ticketmaster. The decision has been described by the DoJ as "the most significant enforcement action of an existing antitrust decree by the Department in 20 years."
The original decree was agreed by Live Nation and Ticketmaster as the condition for the DoJ to authorise their merger. According to the new terms of the Consent Decree, Live Nation will be subject to an automatic penalty of $1 million for each violation of the Decree and will pay costs and fees for the DoJ’s investigation and enforcement.
In addition, Live Nation is not authorised to threaten to withhold concerts from a venue if the venue chooses a ticketer other than Ticketmaster and any threat by Live Nation to withhold any concerts because a venue chooses another ticketer is a violation of the Decree.
Preserve and promote ticketing competition
“When Live Nation and Ticketmaster merged in 2010, the Department of Justice and the federal court imposed conditions on the company in order to preserve and promote ticketing competition,” said Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division.
He added: “Today’s enforcement action including the addition of language on retaliation and conditioning will ensure that American consumers get the benefit of the bargain that the United States and Live Nation agreed to in 2010. Merging parties will be held to their promises and the Department will not tolerate transgressions that hurt the American consumer.”
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