Festival Vibes, Corporate Clashes: Live Nation & Ticketmaster Under Fire Again — This Time from Sports Fans AND Senators
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Just when you thought the main stage drama was reserved for headline sets and surprise encores, the corporate colossus behind most of your festival tickets — yep, that Live Nation-Ticketmaster power duo — is once again under the antitrust spotlight. But this time, it’s not just about music. Oh no, we’ve got sports getting in on the action.
ICYMI: Live Nation is already juggling a major antitrust lawsuit from the U.S. Justice Department and getting the regulatory side-eye in the UK. But now, Senators Amy Klobuchar and Mike Lee — a bipartisan double act if there ever was one — are turning up the heat with fresh questions about a ticketing deal that smells a bit off.
So, what’s got the senators clutching their lanyards? It all centres around a recent collab between Ticketmaster and Fanatics — a mega-merch sports empire — which quietly birthed a new “Fanatics Ticket Marketplace” in March. That means fans can now buy and sell tickets through Fanatics’ app, and merch from Fanatics will be hawked over on Ticketmaster. Sounds convenient, right? But wait…
Klobuchar and Lee reckon it’s just another “anticompetitive” backstage pass to dominance. Instead of Fanatics shaking up the ticketing scene and offering sports fans some healthy competition, they’ve allegedly just linked arms with the big boss of the backstage world: Ticketmaster. The senators say that’s blocking new players from entering the field — or, in festival terms, hogging the entire headline slot and not letting any fresh acts on the bill.
They’ve now asked the Department of Justice to step in and see if this tie-up breaks any rules — particularly those that prevent monopolies from stopping the show before it even starts.
Of course, Ticketmaster hit back, saying this deal simply gives fans more ways to grab tickets, and that they’re far from being the only act in the secondary ticketing game (looking at you, SeatGeek, StubHub, and Vivid Seats).
Still, with the broader Live Nation antitrust case still rumbling on and the TICKET Act back on the table — yes, the one Live Nation actually supports — we might just be witnessing the start of a long-awaited lineup change in the world of ticketing. A little more fairness, a little more freedom, and maybe… just maybe, a little less refreshing that page 400 times to buy festival tickets?
We’ll be watching from the front row.
