Juice Entertainment — the entertainment company that has been engaged in a lawsuit with Live Nation for 15 years — submitted a formal letter to the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission, alleging that Live Nation, Inc. has engaged in fraud, monopolistic behavior, deceptive business practices, and corporate espionage.
The letter was submitted in response to the DOJ and FTC’s public inquiry into the unfair and anticompetitive practices in live ticketing — directed by President Trump’s Executive Order on Combating Unfair Practices in the Live Entertainment Market.
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Juice Entertainment’s chief executive and New Jersey club promoter Thomas Dorfman claimed that Live Nation operates a “concealed, non-traditional profit model that derives revenue from secretly and arbitrarily negotiated rebates with vendors,” which is “done without the knowledge or concent of its fiduciaries, including co-promoters, artists, agents, managers, regulators, and fans.”
The promoter claims that through this business model, Live Nation’s production and promotional profits average between 20 to 45% of the total ticket sales per event — rather than the 1 to 2 % that Live Nation discloses to the public and fiduciaries. Juice Entertainment noted that these practices cause a rise in production costs, leading to consumers paying more in ticket prices.
Live Nation is also accused of misleading contracts, false projections, and maintaning at least two sets of financial results per production — one profitable that remains private and one less profitable that is released to the public.
According to Juice Entertainment, Live Nation’s business model cannot function without Ticketmaster’s control of ticketing data and revenue, which allows the entertainment giant to leverage its monopoly power and dominate the industry. Live Nation is accused of intimidation, corruption, and espionage targeting competitiors, vendors, and litigants.
Additionally, the promoter claimed that Live Nation pushes a narrative that forces the blame onto scalpers — “a deliberate misrepresentation to deflect investigation into its business practices.”
| READ: New Jersey Mayor Calls for Investigation Into Prolonged Lawsuit Against Live Nation |
“This case is not just about one company, it’s about the integrity of the live entertainment industry in America,” Dorfman said in a press release. “It’s time for transparency, accountability and fair competition in the industry.”
Juice Entertainment supports these allegations with over 500 pieces of evidence, including accounting records, internal emails, audio recordings, despositions, and more. Dr. Richard Barnet, the nation’s top academic expert in the live entertainment industry, validated these claims in an expert report — recovered last year in buried court files by the late Congressman Bill Pascrell.
| READ: Pascrell Shares ‘Explosive’ Ticketmaster Report Alleging Abuses |
Pascrell spotlighted Dorfman’s case in an “explosive” previously suppressed study of the entertainment giant’s business practices, originally filed as part of a lawsuit against Live Nation in 2019. The report, Pascrell noted, details “rampant corrupt and abusive practices by the Live Nation-Ticketmaster monopoly.”
Dorfman’s case was also featured in the ABC Four Corners investigation, which shed light on Live Nation’s market manipulation and impact on the country’s music scene. The investigation, “Four Corners: Music For Sale,” follows an investigation by reporter Avani Dias, who has been speaking to industry insiders and musicians regarding Live Nation’s domination.
While Live Nation has unequivocally denied any wrongdoing throughout legal proceedings thus far — and continues to stand by the fact that ticket resale is the lone issue harming consumers — the National Independent Venue Association, Sports Fans Coalition, National Consumers League, and Progressive Policy Institute are among those fighting these claims, alleging that the problem all boils down to Live Nation itself.
