US Justice department probes Live Nation’s agreements with venues, artists -WSJ By Reuters

© Reuters. An American flag waves outdoors the U.S. Division of Justice Constructing in Washington, U.S., December 2, 2020. REUTERS/Tom Brenner/File Picture

(Reuters) -The U.S. Justice Division’s investigation into Dwell Nation is specializing in whether or not the corporate makes use of anticompetitive agreements with venues and artists, the Wall Avenue Journal reported on Wednesday, citing individuals acquainted with the matter.

The probe is taking a look at any restrictions within the offers that Dwell Nation affords, together with whether or not the agreements limit venues’ capability to work with different promoters or ticket companies, the report mentioned.

Enforcers in current weeks have despatched doc retention letters to expertise businesses whose touring divisions prepare contracts between artists and promoters like Dwell Nation, in response to the report.

A spokesperson for Dwell Nation mentioned: “We take part in aggressive bidding for each artist and venue offers.”

“That competitors has solely elevated in recent times, and we welcome any dialogue on our particular enterprise practices as this rising business continues to evolve.”

The Justice Division didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

In July, Politico reported that the Justice Division may file an antitrust lawsuit towards Dwell Nation and its unit Ticketmaster by the top of the 12 months.

Earlier this 12 months, U.S. senators slammed Ticketmaster over its dealing with of ticket gross sales for Taylor Swift’s live performance tour that pissed off followers and generated complaints.

Ticketmaster in November 2022 canceled a deliberate ticket sale to most of the people for Swift’s tour after greater than 3.5 billion requests from followers, bots and scalpers overwhelmed its web site.

Ticketmaster has beforehand denied utilizing anti-competitive practices and mentioned it remained beneath a consent decree with the Justice Division following a 2010 merger, including that there was no “proof of systemic violations of the consent decree.”