Will California’s fight with Live Nation make tickets affordable again? | Opinion
For years, Californians have paid some of the highest ticket prices in the nation just to attend a concert, ballgame or live performance. Massive fees and unchecked scalping have turned what should be an easy day out into a luxury purchase. That may finally be changing thanks to the leadership of California Attorney General Rob Bonta and the courts.
Last week, a federal California judge cleared the way for a class action lawsuit against Live Nation — the company that owns Ticketmaster — to move forward. The suit seeks to recoup 15 years of alleged damages for consumers from the purchase of over 400 million tickets.
And right before Thanksgiving, a federal judge allowed a sweeping antitrust lawsuit brought by Bonta, the Justice Department and a slew of other states to advance. The complaint argues that Live Nation wields monopoly power that harms artists, venues and fans alike.
As Bonta put it in a press release, “Live Nation imposed its dominance of the live concert industry by manipulating the marketplace, sending ripples of economic injustice throughout our state.” His lawsuit describes an industry warped by deep, systemic consolidation.
Live Nation controls around 80% of the primary ticketing market in the United States — and that’s just one piece of its empire. The company also owns or operates hundreds of the nation’s largest concert venues and much of the promotional side of the business.
According to Bonta’s lawsuit, Live Nation uses its scale to lock venues into restrictive long-term exclusive contracts. It also allegedly threatens to withhold venues access to top artists if they work with rival ticketers and pressures artists to choose Live Nation as their promoter. His suit seeks to end these alleged anticompetitive arrangements and restore a functioning marketplace for California’s fans, venues and artists.
Internal company e-mails obtained by the Federal Trade Commission, now under review in a separate case in a California U.S. District Court, further illuminate how the system may have been manipulated.
According to the complaint, those documents may show Ticketmaster employees acknowledging they “turn a blind eye as a matter of policy” while brokers use fake accounts and proxy servers to evade purchase limits and hoard thousands of tickets.
Per the suit, one internal review revealed that just five brokers controlled more than 6,300 Ticketmaster accounts and stockpiled roughly 246,000 tickets across nearly 2,600 events. That kind of hoarding predictably drives prices through the roof for ordinary fans in the resale market.
Live Nation is advocating that policymakers impose price caps on resale tickets to make events affordable again. At first glance, that may sound like a consumer-friendly solution. But it isn’t.
Because Live Nation operates across ticketing, promotion and venue ownership, it is far less exposed to ticket sale margins than standalone platforms. That is why economists have warned that broad price caps could therefore fall hardest on its smaller competitors, reducing competition with Live Nation and leaving fans with fewer choices and possibly higher prices over time.
California should not adopt policies that would further entrench a single dominant firm. Instead, the state should stay the course by continuing to crack down on predatory ticketing practices, especially illegal scalping schemes and the platforms accused of routinely flouting the law.
If Bonta and courts succeed in restoring real competition, Californians will get more choices, fairer prices and a live events market that actually works for the people who fill the seats — not just the company selling them.
Live music and sports should bring people together, not box them out. With California leading the charge, we finally have a chance to break the chokehold and reopen the gates to the live events experience fans deserve.
William Lockyer, a Democrat, served as the State of California’s 30th Attorney General. He is also a former member of the California Assembly and California Senate, where he served as the president pro tempore.
This story was originally published December 29, 2025 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Will California’s fight with Live Nation make tickets affordable again? | Opinion."