A judge in federal court in New York City signed off on the
deal in what's been a long-running legal battle that challenged Ticketmaster's
dominance over ticket sales for concerts by major music acts. The Live Nation
subsidiary had been facing multiple charges of conspiracy to commit hacking and
wire fraud targeting a Brooklyn-based company called Songkick.
Ticketmaster had already paid $110 million in 2018 to settle
a civil suit brought by Songkick.
Court papers accused Ticketmaster of trying to infiltrate
systems created by Songkick for artists that had hired the startup to help sell
up to 10 percent of seats for US tours directly through their fan clubs. The
arrangement was seen as a way to reward loyal fans while thwarting scalpers,
and also something that could cut into profits for the Ticketmaster empire.
Ticketmaster employees “repeatedly — and illegally —
accessed a competitor's computers without authorisation using stolen passwords
to unlawfully collect potential business intelligence,” said Acting US Attorney
Seth DuCharme.
A statement from Ticketmaster on Wednesday said that the
conduct involved only two employees who were fired in 2017.
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“Their actions violated our corporate policies and were
inconsistent with our values,” the statement said. “We are pleased that this
matter is now resolved.”
Messages were left with Warner Music Group, the current
owner of Songkick.
The scheme, hatched in 2014 by a former Songkick employee
who joined Ticketmaster and a co-worker there, sought to hack into accounts so
they could identify Songkick's clients and dissuade them from doing business
with the company, prosecutors said in court papers.
In internal communications, one of the employees boasted
Ticketmaster could “cut (the victim company) off at the knees” if it could win
back the pre-sale ticketing business for an unnamed major artist, the papers
said.