Achi news desk-
Anyone who wants to attend any of the big summer concerts knows how expensive admission can be.
Skyrocketing ticket prices are just one of the reasons the US Department of Justice launched a lawsuit in Manhattan federal court Thursday against the largest concert promoter and ticket seller in North America, accusing them of an “illegal monopoly. “
“It’s getting very difficult, the costs are getting so high and it’s getting harder to get access to the tickets,” said Kate Taplin, one of the concertgoers from Halifax who finds it easier and often cheaper to buy concert tickets abroad and attend the show. there, rather than in Canada or the USA
The 31-year-old flew from Halifax to Germany on Friday morning for a Metallica concert scheduled in Munich this weekend.
Taplin says it’s difficult to even get a chance to buy tickets in Canada, where she has to spend significant time online, trying to find access codes to secure seats, just to see all the tickets bought and then resold at “much higher prices. “
“I have so many people helping me (buy tickets) and then just when I think I’ve made up my mind, they change it up,” Taplin said.
In 2022, Taplin was traveling in Italy for a concert and said it was easier to buy tickets there for a show in Canada from there than it would have been to buy the tickets from her home in Nova Scotia.
“I bought Harry Styles tickets when I was in Italy in 2022 and I bought them for the Toronto show, but I bought them while I was overseas and I don’t know what it was about the whole process but it went so much easier ,” Taplin said. “I literally got my general admission and was in and out in two minutes.”
In its lawsuit, the US Department of Justice claims that the “illegal monopoly” that Live Nation and its company Ticketmaster hold has helped raise ticket prices and prevented other businesses from competing in the ticketing sector.
It’s not good for consumers or businesses, says Terry Smith, VP of operations at Locarius, an Atlantic Canadian software company that launched a concert and event ticketing platform in 2021. The company operates in all three provinces Maritime and recently expanded to Ontario.
“Live Nation controls a lot of these venues and Ticketmaster is the only player allowed to sell tickets in there,” Smith said.
He and his colleagues at Locarius say the goal of their ticketing platform is to be more transparent and make tickets easier to get hold of at a fairer price, with fewer additional fees.
Smith supports the American lawsuit and hopes lawmakers in Canada pay close attention.
“The ticket business is disgraceful, for lack of a better word,” said Smith. “There are a lot of practices that are frowned upon, but they get away with it because if you control the venue and the artist and the ticketing system, you can do almost anything .”
Ticketmaster merged with Live Nation in 2010 – a move approved by the US government but now the justice department is trying to break up the company through the lawsuit, which has seen 30 states join.
“We claim that Live Nation has illegally monopolized markets across the live concert industry in the United States for far too long,” said Marrick Garland “It’s time to break it up.”
Concertgoers like Taplin will continue to pay the price, or go to great lengths to put themselves in the audience.
“I support that (lawsuit),” Taplin said. “I think they’re probably playing even more games behind the scenes that we don’t even know about.
According to the lawsuit, nearly 70 percent of all tickets sold for major concerts across the United States go through Ticketmaster and the company owns or operates more than 265 venues concert across North America.
Live Nation calls the lawsuit baseless and attributes high ticket prices to rising production costs and artist popularity and points to reselling or scalding tickets as another driver of high costs.
