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The real intent of Ticketmaster\u2019s push for nontransferable tickets was to make it harder for fans to use rival platforms like StubHub and SeatGeek, the newly updated complaint in the Department of Justice\u2019s antitrust lawsuit against Ticketmaster<\/a> and its parent company, Live Nation, alleges. The complaint<\/a>, which was amended on Monday after 10 states joined the DOJ\u2019s lawsuit, cites internal Ticketmaster documents obtained during the legal process.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In 2019, Ticketmaster rolled out SafeTix, which replaced static barcodes on electronic tickets with encrypted barcodes that refresh every 15 seconds. Ticketmaster marketed SafeTix as a way of reducing ticket fraud, but the complaint claims reducing competition was \u201ca primary motivation\u201d for the new ticketing system.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n A document from a 2014 executive meeting calls the \u201cnon-transferrable digital ticket\u201d a \u201cgame-changer.\u201d At a meeting three years later, the rotating barcode was described as a \u201cproduct enhancement [ ] for market share\u201d and an opportunity to \u201cREDUCE TM\u2019S ECONOMIC RISK,\u201d according to the complaint.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The amended complaint includes new information about Ticketmaster\u2019s dominance of the events market. One internal Live Nation document cited in the complaint notes that Ticketmaster is the primary ticketer for approximately 80 percent of arenas across the country that host NBA or NHL teams. As of 2022, Live Nation-promoted events accounted for 70 percent of all amphitheater shows across the country, according to internal Live Nation events mentioned in the complaint.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The DOJ alleges that because of Ticketmaster\u2019s conduct, consumers have \u201cpaid more and continue to pay more for fees relating to tickets to live events than they would have paid in a free and open competitive market.\u201d The exact amount of monetary harm is still unknown, the complaint claims, and will require discovery from Ticketmaster and Live Nation\u2019s books, as well as from its third-party competitors.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n