Stay Nation has filed a movement asking for a fast finish to the antitrust case introduced by the US Division of Justice in opposition to the corporate and its ticketing arm Ticketmaster.
In a memorandum supporting its movement for abstract judgment, legal professionals for Stay Nation mentioned the DoJ’s case in opposition to the corporate relies on “gerrymandered” proof that doesn’t meet the authorized standards for monopoly energy.
“Plaintiffs opened this case alleging that Stay Nation had a number of, self-reinforcing monopolies and had – for fifteen years – engaged in ‘systematic’ and ‘intentional’ corruption of competitors throughout ‘nearly each facet of the stay music ecosystem,’” legal professionals wrote within the memorandum filed with the US District Court docket for the Southern District of New York on Tuesday (November 18).
“Sturdy phrases. If there was a lick of fact to them, one would count on plaintiffs to now have mountains of proof demonstrating monopoly energy and the anticompetitive results of Stay Nation’s conduct. And but, after an 18-month investigation and a yr of discovery, plaintiffs have barely a molehill.”
Stay Nation’s legal professionals asserted that the DoJ massaged knowledge on Stay Nation’s market share by excluding bigger venues from its measure. It cited the DoJ’s personal professional, whose calculations allegedly confirmed that Stay Nation’s 86% market share in major ticketing companies drops to 49% when stadiums are included.
It cited a authorized precedent the place a court docket dominated that if an accused monopolist’s market share is lower than 50%, “the plaintiff should supply further proof that that the defendant is ready to exclude competitors to keep away from abstract judgment.”
Utilizing market share as a measure of monopoly energy “is conceptually permissible – however provided that the related markets are correctly outlined,” the memorandum acknowledged. “Right here, the alleged related markets are all gerrymandered in apparent and legally indefensible methods.”
The memorandum, which might be learn in full right here, asserted that the DoJ outlined Stay Nation’s market on this means “for the easy motive that in the event that they included all main live performance venues and the artists that search to play in them, Stay Nation and Ticketmaster’s market shares are too low to deduce monopoly energy and plaintiffs’ claims fail.”
Moreover, Stay Nation’s legal professionals wrote, “Ticketmaster has misplaced over 30 factors of market share because the merger [of Live Nation and Ticketmaster in 2010], a positive signal that it doesn’t have monopoly energy.”
“After an 18-month investigation and a yr of discovery, plaintiffs have barely a molehill.”
Stay Nation
The memorandum additionally attacked the federal government’s assertion that Stay Nation used its market energy to successfully coerce venues into signing unique ticketing contracts with Ticketmaster.
“On the contrary, each venue witness has testified that they search and like unique ticketing contracts. And there’s no competent proof that unique contracting permits Ticketmaster to extract supracompetitive costs from venues, not to mention by excluding competitors from rivals.”
The memorandum asserts that the claims that Ticketmaster leveraged Stay Nation-sponsored exhibits to safe unique ticketing contracts with venues relies on inadmissible rumour.
“Plaintiffs resort to the testimony of different ticketing corporations – not venues – asserting that somebody instructed them that the explanation they misplaced a ticketing contract negotiation to Ticketmaster was that another person instructed their counterparty that selecting a unique ticketing firm would imply the venue would lose Stay Nation exhibits. None of that proof could be admissible at trial…”
The DoJ filed the antitrust go well with in opposition to Stay Nation and Ticketmaster in Might 2024, alleging “monopolization and different illegal conduct that thwarts competitors in markets throughout the stay leisure business.”
Earlier this yr, federal court docket Decide Arun Subramanian rejected Stay Nation’s try and dismiss elements of the DoJ’s case. The choose wasn’t swayed by the corporate’s arguments in opposition to prosecutors’ “tying” declare, which accused Stay Nation of forcing artists to make use of its live performance promotion companies in the event that they need to carry out at Stay Nation-owned venues.
Stay Nation’s authorized issues ramped up in September, when the Federal Commerce Fee (FTC) sued Stay Nation and Ticketmaster in a federal court docket in California, alleging that the corporate violated its personal limits on batch purchases of tickets, because it earnings from scalping actions.Music Enterprise Worldwide
