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MANHATTAN (CN) — Defense attorneys for Ticketmaster hounded the executive of one of the ticketer’s top competitors on Friday amid claims that the company is fostering an anticompetitive market with its parent group, global concert promoter Live Nation.
Testifying in the Justice Department’s antitrust case against Live Nation and Ticketmaster, SeatGeek co-founder Jack Groetzinger told jurors he initially struggled to persuade arenas and stadiums to switch from Ticketmaster after launching the platform in 2009.
Groetzinger said venues were not concerned about SeatGeek’s technology — many executives were impressed with how it compared with Ticketmaster, the industry standard.
Instead, he said venues had “extreme concerns” about potential retaliation from Live Nation, which the government claims has a reputation for pulling concerts from venues that stop using Ticketmaster.
“If they moved to SeatGeek, they would get fewer concerts from Live Nation,” Groetzinger testified.
Groetzinger said those fears limited SeatGeek’s potential client base, leaving the company to pursue arenas and stadiums whose executives were less concerned about concert cancellations.
That helped SeatGeek secure a deal with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2020, he said, noting the team was among the few NBA franchises not using Ticketmaster at the time. He also targeted NFL stadiums, which rely less on concerts for revenue.
Still, Groetzinger said the Dallas Cowboys’ concerns about losing Live Nation concerts nearly “tanked the whole process.” He said the sides finalized a deal in 2018 after SeatGeek agreed to provide “retaliation insurance” to cover losses from concerts canceled after leaving Ticketmaster.
“It’s still something that makes me really uncomfortable,” Groetzinger said of the measure, but suggested it was necessary to compete with Ticketmaster, the largest arena ticketer in the country, “by a very wide margin.”
Groetzinger said he used a similar strategy to secure Barclays Center, home of the Brooklyn Nets, in 2021. SeatGeek agreed to give the arena’s ownership a $20 million stake in the company — roughly equal to the revenue Barclays expected to lose from Live Nation concerts after leaving Ticketmaster.
Earlier this week, former Nets and Barclays Center CEO John Abbamondi testified that the arena saw “a dramatic decline in shows booked at the arena” after switching to SeatGeek. He said a Live Nation-promoted Billie Eilish concert in 2021 was instead booked at nearby UBS Arena in Elmont, New York.
Abbamondi said Barclays returned to Ticketmaster less than two years later, partly because of the lost shows.
Their testimony reflects what the government describes as a “broken marketplace” in the live events industry. The Justice Department argues Live Nation and Ticketmaster are “monopolists” that use control over concert promotion and ticketing to pressure artists and venues to stay with their services.
Groetzinger testified that SeatGeek began cooperating with the DOJ and the dozens of state attorneys general backing the case in 2016, when it first reported what he described as “instances of illegal conduct.”
Live Nation’s attorneys pressed him on that cooperation, portraying Groetzinger as a vindictive competitor intent on harming Ticketmaster’s business.
Defense attorney David Marriott cited messages in which he said Groetzinger appeared pleased by the lawsuit’s impact on Ticketmaster, including sending “a smiley emoji” to an investor after news that the case had sent Ticketmaster’s stock down 7%.
“You see this lawsuit as a potential benefit to your business?” Marriott asked.
“Absolutely,” Groetzinger replied.
For more than an hour, Marriott walked the jury through various complaints from SeatGeek’s customers, including Barclays Center and the Cleveland Cavaliers, seemingly suggesting that Ticketmaster’s success isn’t due to monopolistic behavior, but because it’s simply a superior product to its competitors.
Groetzinger didn’t shy away from the complaints, but he repeatedly emphasized that Live Nation’s supposed anticompetitive behavior was a far greater strain on his business than his product’s performance.
“Nothing’s perfect. I’m not claiming we’re angels,” Groetzinger said.
Suing Live Nation for Sherman Act antitrust violations, the DOJ seeks to break up the entities that together control the concert industry. The trial is expected to stretch into April.
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