Songkick allows artists to sell pre-sale tickets before the general sale of tickets, and the unnamed employee was also accused of sharing URLs that led to drafts of these ticket pages. A Ticketmaster executive wanted the company to aim to “stifle” its competitor and “steal back one of its [its] subscription customers, ”wrote the prosecutor.
DoJ:
In January 2014, Coconspirator-1 emailed Zaidi and a second Ticketmaster executive several sets of usernames and passwords for toolboxes. Co-conspirator-1 encouraged executives to “capture hell outside the system”, but also warned: “I must emphasize that, as this is access to a live [victim company] tool I would be careful what you click, as it would be better not to [to] revealing that we are eavesdropping.”(Emphasis on original.) Information from the toolboxes was then used to prepare a presentation for other senior executives to“ compare ”Ticketmaster’s offerings with those of the victim company.
The DoJ said the information was also shared within Ticketmaster. “Ticketmaster employees brazenly held a ‘dome’ across the division where stolen passwords were used to access the victim company’s computers, as if this were an appropriate business tactic,” wrote DuCharme. “Ticketmaster used stolen information to gain an edge over the competition and then promoted employees who broke the law.”
In 2018, Ticketmaster paid Songkick $ 110 million in a settlement over a lawsuit accusing Ticketmaster of abusing its market power to control ticket sales. Ticketmaster also paid an undisclosed amount to acquire Songkick’s technology and patents. During the process, Songkick also accused Ticketmaster of corporate espionage, which would have caught the attention of the DoJ, according to the New York Times.
The $ 10 million fine appears to be a mild punishment, given the charges filed and the fact that Live Nation saw $ 11.5 billion in revenue in 2019. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has hit the company’s business dramatically, with revenue in the third quarter of 2020 from $ 184 million compared to $ 3.8 billion in the third quarter of 2019 – a drop of more than 95%. In a statement, a Ticketmaster spokesman said: “Ticketmaster fired Zaidi and Mead in 2017 after their conduct came to light. Their actions violated our corporate policies and were inconsistent with our values. We are pleased that this matter is resolved. “