Ticketmaster Customer Info at Risk After Reported Hack

Already fighting an antitrust suit, Live Nation is now also dealing with a data breach. 

The country’s biggest ticket seller announced Friday (May 31) that its Ticketmaster system could have been compromised by a hacker who is trying to sell customer information on the dark web.

According to a regulatory filing, Live Nation first noticed unauthorized activity within a third-party cloud database containing company data on May 20, and began an investigation. A week later, the company learned a criminal was offering user data for sale.

“We are working to mitigate risk to our users and the company, and have notified and are cooperating with law enforcement,” the filing said. “As appropriate, we are also notifying regulatory authorities and users with respect to unauthorized access to personal information.”

The apparent cyberattack on Live Nation is part of a series of recent high-profile data breaches, and research by PYMNTS Intelligence has shown that 82% of eCommerce merchants suffered cyber or data breaches in the last year. 

Forty-seven percent of those merchants said the breaches led to both lost revenue and lost customers, according to “Fraud Management in Online Transactions,” a collaboration between PYMNTS Intelligence and Nuvei.

News of the Live Nation breach came a week after the U.S. Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit aiming to dismantle the company, accusing it of engaging in monopolistic practices in the live events industry.

“We allege that Live Nation relies on unlawful, anticompetitive conduct to exercise its monopolistic control over the live events industry in the United States at the cost of fans, artists, smaller promoters and venue operators,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland. 

“The result is that fans pay more in fees, artists have fewer opportunities to play concerts, smaller promoters get squeezed out and venues have fewer real choices for ticketing services. It is time to break up Live Nation-Ticketmaster.”

Live Nation responded to the Justice Department lawsuit by calling the allegations “absurd.”

“The complaint — and even more so the press conference announcing it — attempt to portray Live Nation and Ticketmaster as the cause of fan frustration with the live entertainment industry,” Dan Wall, executive vice president, corporate and regulatory affairs at Live Nation, wrote in a blog post after the suit was filed.

But some fans are frustrated, with a group of consumers filing their own antitrust suit against Live Nation and Ticketmaster the day after the government suit. This suit also accused Live Nation of exerting monopoly control over its industry and seeks $5 billion in damages on behalf of what could be millions of customers.