DOJ, states sue Live Nation seeking breakup of company; stock sinks (NYSE:LYV)

The Justice Dept. confirmed it and more than two dozen states filed an antitrust suit against Ticketmaster parent Live Nation Entertainment (NYSE:LYV), and will look to break up the company.

Live Nation stock (LYV), already lower from Wednesday postmarket in anticipation of the suit, stayed depressed after the news, and dipped further during a DOJ news conference, -6.4% as of 11:19 a.m.

“It is time to break up Live Nation,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said.

The lawsuit says an illegal monopoly on live events pushes prices higher for fans.

“One monopolist serves as the gatekeeper for the delivery of nearly all live music in America today: Live Nation, including its wholly owned subsidiary Ticketmaster,” the suit says. “In Live Nation’s words, it is the ‘largest live entertainment company in the world,’ the ‘largest producer of live music concerts in the world,’ and ‘the world’s leading live entertainment ticketing sales and marketing company.’ Indeed, Live Nation is all these things, to the detriment of fans, artists, venues, and competition.”

“In recent years, Live Nation/Ticketmaster’s exorbitant fees and technological failures have been criticized by fans and artists alike,” Garland said in a morning news conference. “But we are not here today because Live Nation/Ticketmaster’s conduct is inconvenient or frustrating. We are here because as we allege, that conduct is anticompetitive, and illegal. “

“We allege that Live Nation relies on unlawful, anticompetitive conduct to exercise its monopolistic control over the live events industry in the United States at the cost of fans, artists, smaller promoters, and venue operators,” Garland said.

That alleged conduct includes multiyear contracts that Live Nation enters into with bigger venues as well as colluding with venue operator Oak View Group to restrict competition.

Live Nation is (until next year) operating under a consent decree that allowed its 2010 combination with Ticketmaster to go forward.