Live Nation employees bragged about overcharging – Business News
Two Live Nation employees bragged about slapping prospects with exorbitant charges on the leisure giant’s venues, saying “these people are so stupid” that “I almost feel bad taking advantage of them,” in keeping with court docket paperwork launched late Wednesday.
Live Nation – which owns Ticketmaster, the company accused of gouging ticket costs for Taylor Swift followers and different concertgoers – earlier this week reached a shock settlement with the Justice Department, although a number of state attorneys basic are nonetheless pursuing legal motion.
In a sequence of Slack messages from 2021 by way of 2023, Ben Baker and Jeff Weinhold – then regional administrators of ticketing – gloated about climbing “ancillary fees” for parking and VIP packages to sky-high ranges, court docket displays confirmed.
Ticketmaster has been accused of gouging ticket costs for Taylor Swift followers and different concertgoers. Getty Images for TAS Rights Management
Messages confirmed Weinhold boasting about charging $250 for VIP parking at a Virginia venue and Baker gleefully recounting charging “$50 to park in the grass” and “$60 for closer grass” at one other venue.
“These people are so stupid,” Baker wrote. “I almost feel bad taking advantage of them.”
In a dialog from 2022, the pair mentioned the annual growth of “premier parking” at an unspecified venue, which hit $660,000 in 2021, in keeping with a financial desk within the chat.
“Robbing them blind, baby,” Baker wrote. “That’s how we do.”
Later in that very same Slack channel, the pair mentioned base costs for seats at reveals, and Baker wrote, “I gouge them on ancil prices to make up for it.”
Live Nation sought to distance itself from the outrageous remarks.
Ticketing employees at Live Nation bragged about the exorbitant charges they charged followers at live performance venues.
“The Slack exchange from one junior staffer to a friend absolutely doesn’t reflect our values or how we operate,” a company spokesperson informed The Post in a assertion. “Because this was a private Slack message, leadership learned of this when the public did, and will be looking into the matter promptly.”
Baker, who was a regional director on the time of the Slack messages, has since been promoted to the pinnacle of ticketing for Live Nation’s 150 amphitheaters and was slated to testify in court docket this week, in keeping with a court docket submitting.
His testimony was postponed after the Department of Justice reached a settlement Monday with Live Nation that would permit it to keep away from a sale of Ticketmaster amid allegations it managed an unlawful monopoly.
Live Nation earlier this week reached a shock settlement with the Justice Department. REUTERS
The company informed The Post that it will cap charges at its amphitheaters at 15% and that it has invested $1 billion in US venues over the past 18 months.
US District Judge Arun Subramanian informed a group of state attorneys basic who didn’t settle for the settlement to achieve their own settlement or put together to proceed the trial with the identical jury on Monday.
Last week, Live Nation sought to dam the release of the inner Slack messages, arguing they have been “irrelevant” and their solely objective was to color the company in an “unflattering light and inflame the jury.”
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The messages between Baker and Weinhold represented “off-the-cuff banter” between mates, “not policy, decision-making, or facts of consequence,” the company said.
State attorneys basic argued that the ancillary charges talked about within the Slack messages are a device the company makes use of “to degrade the fan experience by charging excessive prices…without fear of artists switching away,” in keeping with court docket paperwork.
Subramanian ordered the court docket paperwork be made public after a request filed collectively this week by a number of information organizations.
The Post has tried to achieve Baker and Weinhold for remark.
