Live Nation Employees Brag About Price-Gouging Customers: ‘So Stupid’

After Live Nation Entertainment reached a tentative settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice of their antitrust case earlier this week, newly launched court docket paperwork present a sequence of messages between two Live Nation staff through which they bragged about “price gouging” prospects, “robbing them blind” and calling them “so stupid” for paying inflated prices.

A 2022 dialog between Ben Baker and Jeff Weinhold, two regional administrators of ticketing for Live Nation venues, centered on elevating “ancillary fees” like parking and garden chair leases at the expense of the ticket purchaser.

Per Bloomberg and court docket data, Baker wrote that “these people are so stupid” for paying such high charges. Weinhold famous that he had VIP parking at a present priced as much as $250 for one spot. “I almost feel bad taking advantage of them,” responded Baker.

In another change, 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 beforehand sought to exclude the exchanges from the antitrust trial, while an lawyer for the Justice Department argued that it gave a “candid, contemporaneous look into how they view prices.” Judge Aran Subramanian, who’s presiding over the case, ordered that the paperwork be launched in full.

A Live Nation consultant said in an announcement to Variety that the messages shared between Baker and Weinhold don’t characterize 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 lately head of ticketing for Live Nation’s Venue Nation, and was anticipated to testify this week in the DOJ’s antitrust trial, while Weinhold is senior ticketing director in the Washington space, per the New York Times.

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 complete of 27 states will continue their particular person authorized actions against the company, which had been filed in tandem with the DOJ’s, including New York, California and Colorado.