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DOJ files antitrust lawsuit against Ticketmaster
The Justice Department filed a sweeping antitrust lawsuit against Ticketmaster and Live Nation Entertainment on Thursday. The lawsuit accuses the companies of running an illegal monopoly over live events across the United States.
null - Ticketmaster, a Live Nation Entertainment subsidiary, began sending emails notifying customers whose information may have been compromised due to a data breach by a third party provider.
Following an investigation, it is believed that the third party "obtained information from a cloud database hosted by a third-party data services provider," Ticketmaster said.
The breach took place between April 2, 2024, and May 18, 2024.
"We have not seen any additional unauthorized activity in the cloud database since we began our investigation," the company said.
FILE - In this photo illustration, a Ticketmaster website is shown on a computer screen. ( Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
What information was involved?
Information that may have been taken by the hackers includes:
- Customer names
- Basic contact information
- Encrypted credit or debit card numbers and expiration dates
What is Ticketmaster doing about it?
The company said it is continuing to investigate the incident and has taken additional steps to enhance the security around its systems and customer data.
"These measures include rotating passwords for all accounts associated with the affected cloud database, reviewing access permissions, and increased alerting mechanisms deployed in the environment," Ticketmaster said in an email to potentially impacted customers.
Live Nation sued by DOJ
Separately, Live Nation was sued by the Justice Department in May.
The DOJ accused the company of running an illegal monopoly over live events in America and asking a court to break up the system that squelches competition and drives up prices for fans.
Filed in federal court in Manhattan, New York, the sweeping antitrust lawsuit was brought with 30 state and district attorneys general and seeks to dismantle the monopoly they say is squeezing out smaller promoters, hurting artists and drowning ticket buyers in fees.
Ticketmaster and Live Nation have a long history of clashes with major artists and their fans, including Taylor Swift and Bruce Springsteen.
The government accused Live Nation of tactics — including threats and retaliation — that Attorney General Merrick Garland said have allowed the entertainment giant to "suffocate the competition" by controlling virtually every aspect of the industry, from concert promotion to ticketing. The impact is seen in an "endless list of fees on fans," the attorney general said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. This story was reported from Los Angeles.