Washington, D.C. — Yesterday, Live Nation-Ticketmaster announced record-breaking earnings, reporting $12.3 billion in revenue so far in 2022 and outpacing its previous most profitable year (2019) by 43%. In response to this news, the Break Up Ticketmaster Coalition, a diverse group of artists, fan, independent venue, consumer, and policy advocates, released the following statement.

“Despite what the analysts say, there is only one reason for Live Nation-Ticketmaster’s record profits this quarter: monopoly power run amuck,” the Break Up Ticketmaster Coalition said in a statement. “Thanks to a merger in 2010, Live Nation-Ticketmaster has built an empire off of scamming consumers with bogus service fees, squeezing artists out of their hard-earned revenue, gatekeeping independent venue owners from the market if they don’t agree to Live Nation’s terms, and other restrictive practices. To build a vibrant, competitive live events market, the Department of Justice should listen to the thousands of fans, artists, and advocates that are urging them to break up this uncontrollable middleman.”

Last week, during a speech on addressing junk fees across the economy, President Biden specifically called out concert tickets as an area rampant with extra fees — sometimes as much as 78% of a ticket — tacked on to purchases. In response, Live Nation-Ticketmaster released a statement highlighting the need for transparency in the industry, yet did not mention how their anticompetitive conduct creates an opaque marketplace and allows them to increase fees.

Recently, a broad coalition of advocates, including the American Economic Liberties Project, Artist Rights Alliance, Consumer Federation of America, Demand Progress, Fan Freedom, Fight Corporate Monopolies, Future of Music Coalition, More Perfect Union, National Consumers League and Sports Fans Coalition, launched a letter-writing campaign urging the Department of Justice to unwind the Live Nation-Ticketmaster merger of 2010. In just two weeks, over 11,000 people have written letters to the DOJ.

Join the campaign to urge the Department of Justice to break up Ticketmaster here.

Learn more about the coalition here.

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The American Economic Liberties Project works to ensure America’s system of commerce is structured to advance, rather than undermine, economic liberty, fair commerce, and a secure, inclusive democracy. Economic Liberties believes true economic liberty means entrepreneurs and businesses large and small succeed on the merits of their ideas and hard work; commerce empowers consumers, workers, farmers, and engineers instead of subjecting them to discrimination and abuse from financiers and monopolists; foreign trade arrangements support domestic security and democracy; and wealth is broadly distributed to support equitable political power.