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Event companies Live Nation and Ticketmaster have reached a settlement in an antitrust lawsuit with the Department of Justice that could reach more than $200 million, but one local entertainment figure says it\u2019s just a drop in an ocean. <\/p>\n
According to the Associated Press, Ticketmaster’s parent company, Live Nation, will allow venues to sell tickets through competitors like SeatGeek and sell 13 amphitheaters across the U.S. <\/p>\n
Funtime Presents Owner Donny Kutzbach is skeptical about how much change there will be for consumers, local venues, or local promoters.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow, Ticketmaster is just going to, sort of, have to play by slightly different rules,” he said. “They’re still going to be altered. I just don’t see it affecting — from the top down — I don’t see it affecting people in my position on down to the consumer.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are conflicting reports on the settlement amount, it could be up to $280 million total, according to the AP<\/a>, or $280 million for every state that signs the settlement, according to celebrity.land<\/a>.<\/p>\n New York Attorney General Letitia James says she will still pursue an antitrust lawsuit to break up the monopoly.<\/p>\n Live Nation handles more than 70 percent of ticket sales in the U.S., according to USA Today<\/a>.<\/p>\n With such a stranglehold on the market, the company might be too big for the lawsuit to succeed, Kutzbach said.<\/p>\n \u201cThey have gotten too big. They have gotten too powerful,\u201d he said. \u201cI haven’t seen this happen in other cases where a company that big and that powerful is ever taken down to a level where there is ever fair competition.”<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n