{"id":651206,"date":"2026-03-12T22:00:22","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T22:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/651206\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T22:00:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T22:00:22","slug":"live-nation-employees-brag-about-gouging-fans-in-private-exchanges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/651206\/","title":{"rendered":"Live Nation Employees Brag About “Gouging” Fans In Private Exchanges"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tA pair of Live Nation<\/a> employees joked about \u201cgouging\u201d fans with fees and parking costs at concerts, further adding that these concertgoers are \u201cso stupid\u201d and that Live Nation is \u201crobbing them blind, baby,\u201d according to private messages released as court documents as part of Live Nation\u2019s monopoly lawsuit. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe messages, which were sent in 2022 between Live Nation employees Ben Baker and and Jeff Weinhold, were shared Wednesday as exhibits in the government\u2019s case against the live music giant, after Live Nation had argued the documents weren\u2019t relevant to the case. The plaintiff states, however, argued that it reflects Live Nation\u2019s monopoly power as artists don\u2019t want to gouge their fans, but Live Nation is able to \u201cdegrade the fan experience by charging excessive prices for ancillary services without fear of artists switching away.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a statement, Live Nation said \u201cthe Slack exchange\u00a0from one junior\u00a0staffer to a friend\u00a0absolutely doesn\u2019t reflect our values or how we operate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cBecause this was a private Slack message, leadership learned of this when the public did, and will be looking into the matter promptly,\u201d the representative said. \u201cOur business only works when fans have great experiences, which is why we\u2019ve capped amphitheater venue fees at 15 percent and have invested $1 billion in the last 18 months into U.S. venues and fan amenities.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAmong the most notable messages revealed in the court documents, back in 2022, Baker, who oversees ticketing for Live Nation\u2019s venue nation unit, called some increased prices \u201cfucking outrageous,\u201d with Weinhold replying that \u201cI have VIP parking up to $250 lol.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI almost feel bad taking advantage of them,\u201d Baker replied. <\/p>\n

\n\tIn another exchange, Baker shared a screenshot of premier parking costs, further stating \u201crobbing them, blind, baby, that\u2019s how we do.\u201d Later in the exchange, Baker said, \u201cI gouge them on ancil prices to make up for it,\u201d referring to extra ancillary fees on more standard tickets.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe documents including the exchanges were filed days after Live Nation and the Department of Justice<\/a> agreed to a settlement <\/a>over the case on Monday. When the DOJ had first sued the company back in 2024, the department had called to break up <\/a>Live Nation\u2019s eponymous concert promoter from ticketing giant Ticketmaster<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe settlement doesn\u2019t call for a breakup but includes concessions including opening some of Ticketmaster\u2019s tech to other ticketing platforms, as well as Live Nation divesting its exclusive operation of 13 amphitheaters across the country. Live Nation is also capping fees at its amphitheaters at 15 percent, and it agreed to pay as much as $280 million, which reflects the damages states had reported in the original complaint. <\/p>\n

\n\tWhile the DOJ itself has settled, Live Nation has to settle with the remaining 39 states and the District of Columbia that sued the company as well. Assuming Live Nation doesn\u2019t settle with all the remaining plaintiffs, the case is expected to resume next week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A pair of Live Nation employees joked about \u201cgouging\u201d fans with fees and parking costs at concerts, further…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":651207,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[9],"tags":[9611,171,336,160495,36402,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-651206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-department-of-justice","tag-entertainment","tag-lawsuits","tag-live-nation","tag-ticketmaster","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116218457533158856","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=651206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651206\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/651207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=651206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=651206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=651206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}