Clear Channel Communicatios, the No. 1 U.S. radio broadcaster, was implicated in a lawsuit on Friday of cutting back the competition in concerts and then hiking up the ticket prices.
The class-action lawsuit, which was filed in Denver federal court, accuses Clear Channel and their former concert promotion arm, Live Nation, of the actions. It's interesting in that the U.S. Justice Department looked into these things 3 months ago and decided to take no further action against the company.
Essentially the court papers say the defendants are accused of limiting the airtime of musicians who used competitors concert promoters and then increases the musicians fees, in an attempt to block competitors out of the market.
According to the lawsuit the "investigation was reportedly discontinued because Clear Channel agreed to spin off Live Nation to become a separately owned company."
A federal appeals court in New York ruled that the issue concerning concert tickets is local and not national, so the lawsuit can only be connected to the Denver regional market.
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