A new lawsuit claims the alleged monopoly exercised by Live Nation and Ticketmaster forced an upstart competitor called Fanimal out of business.
The case, filed on Tuesday (Dec. 30) in federal court, is the latest in a slew of antitrust lawsuits to allege Live Nation and Ticketmaster have unlawfully cornered the live events industry since merging in 2010. A blockbuster Department of Justice (DOJ) suit seeks to force the two companies apart, and consumers are pursuing their own damages in multiple class actions.
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This time, the plaintiff is a would-be rival: ticketing platform Fanimal. The company was founded in 2018 with an emphasis on transparent pricing and easily split group ticket purchases, but it shut down and was sold to TickPick in 2024.
“Fanimal was an innovative ticketing start-up focused on fans,” reads the lawsuit. “It had venture capital backing, a fast-growing user base of more than 250,000, and a projected valuation of more than $100 million within just a few years. But Fanimal fell prey to Defendants’ anticompetitive practices and was forced to shutter its ticketing business and sell its parts.”
Like the DOJ and consumer lawsuits, Fanimal’s complaint alleges Live Nation has used its control of the concert promotion market to force major venues into using Ticketmaster as their exclusive ticket brokers.
Fanimal says it had the capacity to provide ticketing for major concert venues, but Ticketmaster’s exclusive contracts made it impossible to compete for these opportunities. According to the lawsuit, this alleged ceiling on Fanimal’s scaling capacity closed the door on further venture capital funding.
Now, Fanimal is seeking to recoup its financial losses from Live Nation and Ticketmaster. The complaint states that as a result of the companies’ anticompetitive conduct, it had to sell to TickPick for “a modest amount.”
Reps for Live Nation and Ticketmaster declined to comment on the new lawsuit on Monday (Jan. 5). The companies have previously denied wielding any monopolistic power, arguing that competition in the live events space has actually increased since their merger.
The DOJ case is currently scheduled to go to trial in May. Meanwhile, a broad swath of ticket buyers was granted class certification in a suit against Live Nation and Ticketmaster last month, and a narrower group of Taylor Swift fans overcame a key dismissal motion in November to keep pursuing antitrust claims tied to the Eras Tour presale.
