U.S. plans antitrust lawsuit against Ticketmaster parent Live Nation

Details: The DOJ plans to announce in a midday press conference on Thursday that it is suing Live Nation alongside several states for illegally abusing its monopoly power in live ticketing through its 2010 acquisition of Ticketmaster.

• It will argue that Live Nation leveraged Ticketmaster's exclusive contracts with concert venues to maintain a monopoly in the live entertainment industry and will recommend that the two companies be separated, the source confirmed to Axios.
• The DOJ declined to comment, and Live Nation did not immediately respond to Axios' request for comment.

Catch up quick: The DOJ declined to sue to sue to block Live Nation's acquisition of Ticketmaster in 2010, but said the company is not allowed to pressure concert venues to use its ticketing software through a legal order called a consent decree.

• The 10-year consent decree, Axios reported, was extended for more than five years in 2020, giving the DOJ more power to go after the company for abusing its market dominance.

Between the lines: Live Nation faced intense scrutiny from lawmakers and consumer advocacy groups over botched ticket sales for Taylor Swift's Eras Tour in late 2022.

• That fiasco highlighted the firm's dominance, although the DOJ was reportedly already investigating the company.

The big picture: The Biden administration has aggressively gone after big businesses, particularly in tech, for antitrust over the past three years, suing suing Apple in March and suing Google multiple times since 2020.