After Live Nation Entertainment reached a tentative settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice in their antitrust case earlier this week, newly released court documents show a series of messages between two Live Nation employees in which they bragged about “price gouging” customers, “robbing them blind” and calling them “so stupid” for paying inflated costs.
A 2022 conversation between Ben Baker and Jeff Weinhold, two regional directors of ticketing for Live Nation venues, focused on raising “ancillary fees” like parking and lawn chair rentals at the expense of the ticket buyer.
Per Bloomberg and court records, Baker wrote that “these people are so stupid” for paying such high fees. Weinhold noted that he had VIP parking at a show priced up to $250 for one spot. “I almost feel bad taking advantage of them,” responded Baker.
In another exchange, Baker bragged about charging “$50 to park in the grass” and “$60 for closer grass.” “Robbing them blind, baby,” he wrote. “That’s how we do it.”
Live Nation previously sought to exclude the exchanges from the antitrust trial, while an attorney for the Justice Department argued that it gave a “candid, contemporaneous look into how they view prices.” Judge Aran Subramanian, who is presiding over the case, ordered that the documents be released in full.
A Live Nation representative said in a statement to Variety that the messages shared between Baker and Weinhold do not represent the company’s values: “The Slack exchange from one junior staffer to a friend absolutely doesn’t reflect our values or how we operate. Because this was a private Slack message, leadership learned of this when the public did, and will be looking into the matter promptly. Our business only works when fans have great experiences, which is why we’ve capped amphitheater venue fees at 15% and have invested $1 billion in the last 18 months into U.S. venues and fan amenities.”
Baker was most recently head of ticketing for Live Nation’s Venue Nation, and was expected to testify this week in the DOJ’s antitrust trial, while Weinhold is senior ticketing director in the Washington area, per the New York Times.
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Live Nation reached its tentative settlement with the DOJ on Monday in a case that had threatened to separate the company from its subsidiary Ticketmaster. However, a total of 27 states will continue their individual legal actions against the company, which were filed in tandem with the DOJ’s, including New York, California and Colorado.
From Variety US