A defunct ticketing company has sued Live Nation Entertainment and subsidiary Ticketmaster, claiming the companies used anticompetitive tactics to drive it out of business.
Santa Monica, California-based Fanimal, which ceased operations in late 2024, alleges in the complaint filed on December 30, which you can read here, that Live Nation and Ticketmaster created “an unlawful monopoly” that “harmed fans, artists, and venues,” and “eliminated competition from challengers like Fanimal.”
Fanimal said Ticketmaster controls the ticketing for roughly 80% of major venues across the US and sells about 75% of all online concert tickets via websites and other platforms it controls. The startup also accused Live Nation of holding a monopoly in the concert promotion market as it manages over 400 musical artists and controls around 60% of concert promotions at major US venues.
Live Nation also owns or operates about 150 music venues in the country, including over 60 of the top amphitheatres, which according to Fanimal is “far more than any competitor.”
Fanimal alleged that Live Nation and Ticketmaster maintained their monopolies through illegal practices such as long-term exclusive contracts with venues, threats of retaliation against venues that opt not to sign with Ticketmaster, and restrictions that prevented ticket resales on competing platforms.
“Fanimal fell prey to Defendants’ anticompetitive practices and was forced to shutter its ticketing business and sell its parts.”
Fanimal
Fanimal, founded in 2018, had venture capital backing. Before it shut down, it had a user base of more than 250,000 and a projected valuation of more than $100 million within a few years.
“But Fanimal fell prey to Defendants’ anticompetitive practices and was forced to shutter its ticketing business and sell its parts,” the complaint said.
The lawsuit alleges Ticketmaster locked venues into exclusive agreements lasting five to seven years, with some extending beyond a decade. These contracts included substantial early termination penalties and were secured through subsidies and upfront payments that foreclosed fair competition, according to the complaint.
Ticketmaster maintains exclusive arrangements with at least 70% of major concert venues covering more than 12,000 locations.
“If a venue wants to take advantage of Live Nation’s concert promotion services, Live Nation requires that the venue use Ticketmaster’s primary ticketing services. And because major concert venues depend on concert promotion and major artists, the concert venues relent and agree to use Ticketmaster for their primary ticketing services. Thus, Defendants condition the provision of Live Nation’s concert promotion services on the use of Ticketmaster’s primary ticketing services,” according to the lawsuit.
“If a venue wants to take advantage of Live Nation’s concert promotion services, Live Nation requires that the venue use Ticketmaster’s primary ticketing services. And because major concert venues depend on concert promotion and major artists, the concert venues relent and agree to use Ticketmaster for their primary ticketing services.”
Fanimal
The complaint cited a 2021 incident where Live Nation allegedly diverted concerts from a venue that chose competitor SeatGeek and required the venue to disable SeatGeek’s secondary ticketing for Live Nation events.
In a separate case, Live Nation rival AEG reported to the US Department of Justice that venues that it managed were informed that they would lose valuable shows if they did not pick Ticketmaster as a vendor, the complaint said, citing a report by The New York Times in 2018.
Fanimal said: “Incidents like this one are part of Live Nation’s pattern of retaliation against venues that opt not to sign with Ticketmaster.”
“In multiple other instances, Live Nation has informed venues that they were on ‘the black list’ for choosing to contract with Ticketmaster competitors and has withheld concerts and bookings from venues that opt to contract with a Ticketmaster competitor.”
The lawsuit also targets Ticketmaster’s SafeTix technology, which restricts how electronic tickets can be transferred. The complaint said the system makes tickets available only through Ticketmaster’s smartphone app with automatically refreshing barcodes, preventing resales on competing platforms.
Fanimal said these practices allowed Ticketmaster to charge fees equal to or higher than competitors’ fees, ultimately preventing fair competition in the secondary ticketing marketplace.
“Fanimal has been injured as a result of Defendants’ conduct. Fanimal’s injury is of the type that the antitrust laws were intended to prevent.”
Fanimal
The startup alleged that Live Nation can “overpay” artists to prevent competitive promoters from accessing those artists as it can make back the losses through Ticketmaster’s “supracompetitive profits.”
In 2019, Live Nation’s promotion business lost $53 million while Ticketmaster generated over $230 million in operating income, the complaint said.
“Fanimal has been injured as a result of Defendants’ conduct. Fanimal’s injury is of the type that the antitrust laws were intended to prevent. Fanimal was injured by the harm to competition in the markets for primary and secondary ticketing services as a result of Defendants’ conduct,” the lawsuit added.
The startup is seeking treble damages and legal fees.
The case adds to mounting legal pressure on Live Nation and Ticketmaster. The US Department of Justice sued the companies in 2024, seeking to break them apart after merging in 2010. A federal judge denied Live Nation’s motion to dismiss two major parts of that lawsuit in March 2025. The company then filed a motion asking for a quick end to that case in November.
In September, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also sued Live Nation and its subsidiary Ticketmaster in a federal court in California, alleging that the group violated their own limits on batch purchases of tickets, as they profit from scalping activities.
Separately, a class action by consumers received certification in December, and another group of plaintiffs that includes Taylor Swift fans survived a dismissal motion in November related to problems during the Eras Tour presale.
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