By Jody Godoy
(Reuters) – Reside Nation Leisure (NYSE:) requested a federal choose in New York on Thursday to dismiss a number of states’ claims that the reside occasion promoter harmed event-goers by stifling competitors with its ticket-selling arm, Ticketmaster.
Reside Nation seeks to dismiss a part of the lawsuit the U.S. Division of Justice and a coalition of states filed in Could. Prosecutors search to interrupt up Reside Nation and argue the live performance promoter and Ticketmaster illegally inflated live performance ticket costs and damage artists.
Final month, a number of states joined the lawsuit, taking the whole as much as 39 states and the District of Columbia. Two thirds of them additionally added claims looking for triple damages on behalf of event-goers of their states.
Reside Nation requested for these claims to be dismissed, saying the allegations that it used threats, retaliation and long-term contracts to stop live performance venues from utilizing rival ticketing companies “have almost nothing to do with consumers or the ticketing fees they pay.”
“The premise of their claim appears to be that in a world in which their marginal costs went down, venues would respond by gratuitously reducing prices for consumers rather than pocketing the incremental profit,” the corporate stated.
Reside Nation additionally urged U.S. District Decide Arun Subramanian in Manhattan to dismiss a declare that it locks artists into utilizing its live performance selling companies to e-book venues that it owns, saying the regulation doesn’t require it to let rival live performance promoters lease its amphitheaters.
