Ticketmaster’s nontransferrable ‘SafeTix’ are anti-competitive, DOJ suit claims

The existent intent of Ticketmaster’s propulsion for non-transferrable tickets was to marque it harder for fans to usage rival platforms similar StubHub and SeatGeek, the recently updated ailment successful the Department of Justice’s antitrust suit against Ticketmaster and its genitor institution Live Nation alleges. The complaint, which was amended Monday aft 10 states joined the DOJ’s lawsuit, cites interior Ticketmaster documents obtained during the ineligible process.

In 2019, Ticketmaster rolled retired SafeTix, which replaced static barcodes connected physics tickets with encrypted barcodes that refresh each 15 seconds. Ticketmaster marketed SafeTix arsenic a mode of reducing summons fraud, but the ailment claims reducing contention was “a superior motivation” for the caller ticketing system. 

A papers from a 2014 enforcement gathering calls the “non-transferrable integer ticket” a “game-changer.” At a gathering 3 years later, the rotating barcode was described arsenic a “product enhancement [ ] for marketplace share” and an accidental to “REDUCE TM’S ECONOMIC RISK,” according to the complaint.

The amended ailment includes caller accusation astir Ticketmaster’s dominance of the events market. One interior Live Nation papers cited successful the ailment notes that Ticketmaster is the superior ticketed for astir 80 percent of arenas crossed the state that big NBA oregon NHL teams. As of 2022, Live Nation-promoted events accounted for 70 percent of each amphitheater shows crossed the country, according to interior Live Nation events mentioned successful the complaint.

The DOJ alleges that due to the fact that of Ticketmaster’s conduct, consumers person “paid much and proceed to wage much for fees relating to tickets to unrecorded events than they would person paid successful a escaped and unfastened competitory market.” The nonstop magnitude of monetary harm is inactive unknown, the ailment claims, and volition necessitate find from Ticketmaster and Live Nation’s books, arsenic good arsenic from its third-party competitors.