F1 News: DOJ sues Liberty Media's Live Nation, Formula 1 Next?

With the highly respected Pat Symonds coming on board the Andretti team after his gardening leave, Andretti just needs to get Adrian Newey as their senior design consultant (or whatever title he wishes to have) and FOM (Greg Maffei) will have a big problem on their hands.

Their reasons for excluding Andretti have been eliminated even without hiring Newey, but getting Newey would be the final nail in FOM’s coffin. The DOJ will not look kindly on the matter.

Michael and Mario Andretti talk to Adrian Newey on the Miami GP grid – might they be talking a job!

May 23, 2024

It looks like Liberty Media President Greg Maffei (pictured) might soon be up to his eyeballs in Anti-Trust Lawsuits.

The DOJ is opening up an investigation for possible Anti-Trust actions against Liberty Media in barring the Andretti team from Formula 1 despite meeting all the requirements.

And now today the heat got turned up even higher. The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Thursday sued Liberty Media’s Live Nation Entertainment, the concert giant that owns Ticketmaster, asking a court to break up the company over claims it illegally maintained a monopoly in the live entertainment industry.

Greg Maffei is the Chairman of the Board of Live Nation.

The Justice Department filed the lawsuit in a New York court this morning (May 23), with the backing of 29 states and the District of Columbia. It cites Live Nation’s multi-tentacled operation, which encompasses concert promotion, tickets, artist management, and an international venue network. Live Nation controls more than half of U.S. concert promotion at major venues, as well as some 80 percent of those venues’ primary ticketing.

Those tactics, the government argues, have resulted in higher ticket prices for consumers and have stifled innovation and competition throughout the industry.

“It is time to break up Live Nation-Ticketmaster,” Merrick Garland, the attorney general, said in a statement announcing the suit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The suit asks the court to order “the divestiture of, at minimum, Ticketmaster,” and to prevent Live Nation from engaging in anticompetitive practices.

Live Nation’s scale and reach far exceed those of any competitor, encompassing concert promotion, ticketing, artist management and the operation of hundreds of venues and festivals around the world.

According to the Justice Department, Live Nation controls around 60 percent of concert promotions at major venues around the United States and roughly 80 percent of primary ticketing at major concert venues.

Lawmakers, fans and competitors have accused the company of engaging in practices that harm rivals and drive up ticket prices and fees. At a congressional hearing early last year, prompted by a Taylor Swift tour presale on Ticketmaster that left millions of people unable to buy tickets, senators from both parties called Live Nation a monopoly.

In a statement, Live Nation Entertainment said it would defend against the allegations and “push for reforms that truly protect consumers and artists.” It argued that the lawsuit “ignores the basic economics of live entertainment, such as the fact that the bulk of service fees go to venues, and that competition has steadily eroded Ticketmaster’s market share and profit margin.”