The antitrust lawsuit that Joe Biden's Department Of Justice filed against Live Nation and Ticketmaster in 2024 reached a surprise halt earlier this week when the DOJ, now under Trump, reached a settlement before the case could even go to trial. But that hasn't stopped details of the case from coming to light: According to internal messages released late last night, ticketing employees at Live Nation were joking about gouging ticket buyers and "robbing them blind."
Per the New York Times, the messages in question occurred from late 2021 to early 2023 on Slack between two employees, Ben Baker and Jeff Weinhold, who at the time were regional ticketing directors for Live Nation venues in Florida and Virginia, respectively. "These people are so stupid," wrote Baker in one cited message, referring to customers paying $199 for "VIP Club Admission" for a 2022 Kid Rock concert. "I almost feel bad taking advantage of them." Weinhold responded: "I have VIP parking up to $250 lol."
In another instance from 2022, Baker and Weinhold were messaging about the annual growth of "premier parking" at an unnamed venue, where prices topped off at $666,000 in 2021. "Robbing them blind baby," Baker said. "That’s how we do... I gouge them on ancil prices to make up for it."
A Justice Department lawyer wrote that the Slack messages "provide a candid, contemporaneous look into how they view the prices that Live Nation charges fans for ancillary services at their respective venues." However, Live Nation argued that the messages are "irrelevant" to the trial and should be excluded, saying that they amounted to just "off-the-cuff banter" between friends and "not policy, decision-making or facts of consequence." The company added: "Because this was a private Slack message, leadership learned of this when the public did, and will be looking into the matter promptly."
