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The jury found Ticketmaster had overcharged customers by $1.72 (£1.27) on each ticket sold over a period of several years. That figure is set to be used as the basis for calculating damages.
So... this was a waste of time, then... No one was complaining because Taylor Swift tickets were a buck and some change more expensive...
Oh, you don't actually expect them to pay all that money back, do you? It's already been spent! 😬
I'm guessing that number comes from them essentially having the processing fee twice when the venue itself is owned by livenation as well, rather than it being about the dynamic pricing they're known for.
Well... based on a (conservative) sales figure of 500M tickets sold per year over the last 5 years, that's a penaly of ~$4.3B in restitution. That doesn't include potential punitive damages.
It's actually much worse (for us, not them). From the NBC article.
Live Nation said the jury’s award of $1.72 per ticket "applies to a limited number of tickets—those sold at 257 venues, which represent about 20% of total tickets—and only to purchases by fans (excluding brokers) in certain states over the past five years.”
“Based on that scope, we believe the aggregate single damages figure would be below $150 million, which would be trebled,” the company said. “In connection with the DOJ settlement, Live Nation has already accrued $280 million toward state damages and civil penalty claims. Injunctive relief will be determined by the Court after the states make a remedy proposal, which we expect in the coming weeks.”
So, even though $4.3 billion is pretty paltry against their annual revenue of $25 billion, it's potentially MUCH less because the scope is so limited.
Ah... right. Because this only applies to the states that didn't agree to the settlement. Welp. That is pretty disappointing. I would have hoped it would hit them a little harder. I don't really care about what I'm going to get out of it (though I am in one of the states that didn't settle), so much as the degree to which it hurts Live Nation.
They ran a monopoly? They’re still doing that, aren’t they?
Yes and they'll continue doing so
they even bragged about gouging customers.
No shit.
The consequences will be full disbandment of the company, right? Right?
The relevant law (the Clayton Act) requires the judge to “terminate” the monopoly, but that happens…rarely.
Every 20 years or so, it is revealed that LiveNation is a truly shitty company, everybody agrees on that, and then we all go back to business as usual.
The only reason that this particular "investigation" is happening is because a bunch of politicians got their asses reamed by their spoiled daughters who were demanding Taylor Swift tix on her last tour, and the politician parents found out how much tickets cost these days.
Every 20 years???? Try continuously. They don't even bother hiding it.
This isn't their first time around the Congressional Carousel. Every 20 years they get awful enough that they get the attention of Congress, who has to have a Congressional Dog & Pony Show®, and posture and bloviate, then everything goes back to business as usual.
Live Nation killed Kurt Kobain!
I said this 20+ years ago. I haven't used ticketmaster since.
So did Pearl Jam at the height of their popularity
We all gonna get maybe $12 for sending in a mailer!
Quick google search says they sell like 600 million tickets a year, so it's still $1B per year. They only had like $3B in profit last year, won't you think of the shareholders?
Sounds like they over charged customers by $1.72. so if you bought a few dozen tickets, after all the legal feels you might get $12 of you're lucky.
Live Nation argued throughout the trial that it was not a monopoly and that it competed "fiercely" with rivals in the entertainment space, with sports teams, concert promoters and other venue operators.
Bullshit.
I suggest a duopoly where each board of directors has shares in the others
And what lesson is being taught yet again..?
Crime DOES pay, and it pays very well
I like ticketmaster and live nation personally.
They're a perfectly encapsulated refutation of the idea that capitalism breeds innovation or reduces costs.
Can't wait for my $3 check. Maybe people could pool the settlement money and hire some sort of person to punish the board members publicly... Maybe toe them to a chair at a amateur guitar convention for Oasis enthusiasts.
No chairs. Tie them to a wall and make them wonder what's going to happen next. You could call it the Wonderwall.
It's all just Pachabel's Canon in various keys
They are going to create a new company. Called LiveTickets. The 3rd and totally unrelated company so they can they don’t have a monopoly. Just ignore its all the same investors, board and c-suite.
Gosh. I would never have thought it.
Really?
Shocking
And the "punishment" will be a fraction of a percent of what they've profited from this ongoing fraud.
Oooh no, another day USA not doing the right thing! What the rest of the world will to stop it?
Any smaller competitors the do get in eventually, will just join in with the price gouging and price fixing. Not that this court case has done anything anyway