Dwell Nation and its Ticketmaster unit have been hit with the primary in a probable wave of recent shopper antitrust lawsuits after the U.S. authorities and states sued to interrupt up the 2 corporations on Thursday.
The primary shopper class motion to piggyback on the federal government circumstances was filed in a while Thursday in Manhattan federal courtroom, looking for $5 billion in damages on behalf of doubtless thousands and thousands of ticket purchasers.
The circumstances accuse Dwell Nation of exerting monopoly management over the reside occasions trade, threatening venues that work with rivals and boxing out rivals.
Client circumstances associated to U.S. or state attorneys normal lawsuits can pile up rapidly and put added authorized stress on corporations.
Associated: US Sues to Break Up Dwell Nation-Ticketmaster
Attorneys for the category motion plaintiffs at Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd and Israel David didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
Dwell Nation on Thursday referred to as the federal government lawsuit “baseless” and mentioned there was “extra competitors than ever” within the reside occasions market.
The case was assigned on Friday to U.S. District Choose Arun Subramanian, an appointee of Democratic U.S. President Joe Biden who joined the courtroom final yr. Subramanian beforehand represented some plaintiffs in antitrust lawsuits at regulation agency Susman Godfrey, however the Dwell Nation case seems to be his first antitrust matter as a decide.
Attorneys who reviewed the federal government criticism mentioned Dwell Nation might base its protection partly on the Justice Division’s determination to log off on the corporate’s acquisition of Ticketmaster greater than a decade in the past.
Crowell & Moring’s Eric Enson, an antitrust lawyer who shouldn’t be concerned within the lawsuit, mentioned the federal government’s case raised thorny “authorized and factual questions on whether or not a breakup is a legally permissible treatment.”
The case may resonate with customers who’ve lengthy complained about ticket costs, he mentioned, “however proving antitrust circumstances to juries might be troublesome.”
Nonetheless, antitrust authorized scholar Rebecca Allensworth of Vanderbilt College mentioned that whereas the general public’s opinion of Dwell Nation is legally unimportant, “appearances matter in circumstances, perhaps particularly when they’re determined by juries.”
The Justice Division mentioned its prior case in 2010 addressing Dwell Nation’s merger with Ticketmaster concerned a unique antitrust regulation and that Dwell Nation had since proven “extra expansive types” of anticompetitive conduct.
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