Judge in Live Nation Antitrust Lawsuit Suggests Ticketmaster Customers Can Form Class

US District Judge George Wu has signaled he will let Ticketmaster customers form a class in the antitrust suit against Live Nation. No official ruling has been handed down, but Wu suggested his stance during a recent class certification hearing.

How it works:

• Wu has taken the motion for class certification under submission. That means he has heard all the arguments and seen all the evidence and will make a decision soon.

• Tim O’Mara, an attorney for Live Nation and Ticketmaster, argued that a class consisting of Ticketmaster customers couldn’t accurately represent how the company's practices affected its entire userbase.

• Wu responded by saying such an argument was for a pretrial motion rather than class certification.

What they said:

• O’Mara: “You need to isolate the anticompetitive conduct. If this can be certified as a class, then any case can be certified.”

• Wu: “I don’t agree with you on the approach you’re taking. This is a motion for class certification.”

Why it matters:

• If the class is certified, anyone in the US who has bought tickets for major venues and paid service fees to Ticketmaster since 2010 could join the suit, amounting to millions of potential members.

• If such a class wins the suit, that could equal billions in damages for Live Nation.

Background:

• The suit in question is the 2022 antitrust lawsuit alleging that Ticketmaster engaged in illegal practices to inflate ticket prices and corner the market.

• The complaint said that such practices included forcing brokers to resell on Ticketmaster’s platform, using technology to block all ticket transfers not through the platform, and charging egregious service fees.