A Live Nation employee admitted to turning a blind eye when brokers were buying up big blocks of tickets, saying “normally I’d look other way,” according to newly released court documents.
The chat logs, which surfaced as part of a federal antitrust lawsuit against Ticketmaster and its parent Live Nation, appeared to undermine Live Nation’s claim ahead of the trial that the company’s stance was that “artists should have the final say in how tickets reach their fans across all platforms in the live event ecosystem.”
In a series of Slack messages that took place in January 2022, Live Nation employee Ben Baker grumbled to Jeff Weinhold that an outside ticket broker had purchased all available wheelchair-accessible seats for an upcoming Kid Rock concert. Both were regional ticketing directors at the time.
“That’s weird. F–king some scum broker out of NY gobbled my ADA for Kid Rock,” Baker wrote, referring to seats that are compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
“Normally I’d look other way but the dumba-s listed them on TM+,” Baker added. TM+ is Ticketmaster’s in-house resale platform.
Weinhold replied, “Yeah if they listed right away .. cancel them.”
Live Nation representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Live Nation and Ticketmaster are accused of charging exorbitant ticket prices and stacking the deck against potential rivals. Live Nation struck a controversial settlement with the Justice Department earlier this week, though a coalition of states are still pursuing the case.
In separate Slack messages from 2021 to 2023 that have since gone viral, Baker and Weinhold gloated about charging massive fees on ticket purchases at Live Nation venues, saying “these people are so stupid” that “I almost feel bad taking advantage of them,” according to court records.
The chat logs showed Weinhold bragging about charging $250 for VIP parking at a Virginia venue and Baker describing charging “$50 to park in the grass” and “$60 for closer grass” at another venue.
In one conversation from 2022, the pair discussed proceeds from “premier parking” fees at an unspecified venue, which hit $660,000 in 2021, the records showed.
“Robbing them blind, baby,” Baker wrote. “That’s how we do.”
A Live Nation representative said those Slack messages “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,” the rep added.
Live Nation dodged a potential breakup in the proposed DOJ settlement. The term sheet called for Ticketmaster to cap its service fees at its amphitheaters at 15%, open up booking at 13 amphitheaters to competitors and place a four-year limit on exclusivity deals between Ticketmaster and specific venues. The ticket giant will also create a $280 million fund to settle state claims.
Earlier this week, the federal judge overseeing the case said the remaining plaintiffs should prepare to continue the case on Monday if they couldn’t strike a settlement with Live Nation. The judge asked Live Nation boss Michael Rapino to stay in New York and assist.
The exchanges between Baker and Weinhold also appeared to contradict Live Nation’s frequent claims that it does all it can to crack down on predatory broker practices that drive up prices for Americans – a core argument in a separate federal lawsuit filed by the Federal Trade Commission that is still pending.
The FTC sued Live Nation and Ticketmaster last September, alleging in part that the company “deceptively claimed to impose strict limits on the number of tickets that consumers could purchase for an event, even though ticket brokers routinely and substantially exceeded those limits.”
The FTC’s case cites an internal email in which a senior Ticketmaster executive admitted that Live Nation’s leadership “turn a blind eye as a matter of policy” when brokers violate ticket purchase limits.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) previously blasted Ticketmaster for its “very insufficient” response to the email after Live Nation exec Dan Wall claimed it was “taken very much out of context.”
