{"id":867828,"date":"2025-08-25T00:12:05","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T05:12:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/25\/major-law-firms-seek-class-certification-in-live-nation-ticketmaster-suit-companies-used-their-decade-plus-monopoly-to-raise-prices\/"},"modified":"2025-08-25T00:12:05","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T05:12:05","slug":"major-law-firms-seek-class-certification-in-live-nation-ticketmaster-suit-companies-used-their-decade-plus-monopoly-to-raise-prices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/25\/major-law-firms-seek-class-certification-in-live-nation-ticketmaster-suit-companies-used-their-decade-plus-monopoly-to-raise-prices\/","title":{"rendered":"Major Law Firms Seek Class Certification in Live Nation\/Ticketmaster Suit; Companies \u2018Used Their Decade-Plus Monopoly to Raise Prices\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Live<\/p>\n

Photo Credit: Kilian Seiler<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Major law firms are once again pushing for class certification in a high-stakes lawsuit centering on the alleged anticompetitive business practices of Live Nation and its Ticketmaster subsidiary. <\/strong><\/h2>\n

Attorneys with Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan as well as Keller Postman just recently asked the court for class certification in the complaint, which technically dates back to 2022.<\/p>\n

However, 2020 saw Quinn Emanuel represent clients in a similar-but-distinct case. Long story short, an appellate court sent that suit back to arbitration in 2023, we reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But in the 2022 action, the plaintiffs maintained that Live Nation and Ticketmaster had \u201csince updated their arbitration agreement in ways that renders it unenforceable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fast forward past multiple twists and turns to October 2024, when the Ninth Circuit<\/a> then upheld a district court ruling rejecting Ticketmaster\u2019s attempt to compel arbitration via \u201can arbitrator employed by a newly created entity, New Era ADR, using novel and unusual expedited\/mass arbitration procedures.\u201d<\/h4>\n

Letting the October ruling\u2019s summary take the wheel in the interest of brevity, the relevant \u201cpanel held that the delegation clause of the arbitration agreement, and the arbitration agreement as a whole, were unconscionable and unenforceable under California law.\u201d<\/p>\n

For a company (Live Nation) that\u2019s faced and is facing a number of suits<\/a> from ticked-off consumers, the development was, of course, significant. (The promoter moved forward<\/a> with a Supreme Court petition as well.) With Live Nation\/Ticketmaster lacking \u201cthe shield of an enforceable arbitration agreement,\u201d The Columbia Journal of Law & the Arts summed up<\/a>, \u201cit seems the plaintiffs are free to bring their antitrust case.\u201d<\/p>\n

Enter the initially mentioned attempt to secure class certification, with a related hearing scheduled to take place on the morning of December 4th. <\/strong><\/h4>\n

Closer to the present, the filing largely recaps the alleged consumer harm resulting from the practices of Live Nation and Ticketmaster.<\/p>\n

Admittedly, as recent years have delivered more than a few qualms with and suits against the defendants \u2013 not to mention an ongoing DOJ antitrust action<\/a> looking to split Ticketmaster from Live Nation \u2013 the underlying arguments don\u2019t exactly break new ground.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo backstop their exclusive dealing,\u201d the legal text reads in part, \u201cDefendants have leveraged their dominance in concert promotion to coerce venues into exclusive ticketing deals with Ticketmaster. Major venues rely on concert promoters to rent their space and sell tickets. Defendants exploit this dependence by tying Ticketmaster\u2019s services to Live Nation-promoted concerts.\u201d<\/p>\n

And ultimately, this alleged misconduct caused class members \u2013 those who bought tickets in or after 2010 and therefore coughed up \u201cassociated primary ticketing fees for an event at a major concert venue\u201d \u2013 to pay more than they would have in \u201ca competitive market,\u201d per the document.<\/p>\n

Live Nation and Ticketmaster \u201cused their decade-plus monopoly to raise prices, stifle competition and output, and degrade service quality by squashing rivals and innovation\u2014impacts that each class member felt,\u201d the filing drives home.<\/p>\n

It\u2019ll be worth tracking the push for class certification moving forward. Right now, discovery is ongoing, and the plaintiffs\u2019 counsel reiterated plans to prove their arguments with (among other things) testimony from Live Nation\/Ticketmaster, competitors, and \u201cmarket participants\u201d to boot.<\/p>\n<\/section><\/div>\n

Christeen Schewe
Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photo Credit: Kilian Seiler Major law firms are once again pushing for class certification in a high-stakes lawsuit centering on the alleged anticompetitive business practices of Live Nation and its Ticketmaster subsidiary. Attorneys with Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan as well as Keller Postman just recently asked the court for class certification in the complaint<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":867829,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[204,182],"tags":[6751,5676],"class_list":{"0":"post-867828","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-firms","8":"category-major","9":"tag-firms","10":"tag-major"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=867828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/867829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=867828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=867828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=867828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}