In late May, the U.S. Department of Justice announced a wide-ranging lawsuit against Live Nation, including accusations that the Live Nation-owned Ticketmaster unethically raised prices. For both Ticketmaster and Live Nation as as whole, the lawsuit represents a kind of existential threat — but it’s not the only crisis the event and ticketing giant is currently facing. There’s also the matter of Ticketmaster being hacked — something that’s recently come to light and which the company has confirmed.
As data breaches go, this one could be major. According to NPR’s Juliana Kim, the hackers allegedly responsible for the data theft have information on 560 million customers. To put that in perspective, the global population is just over 8 billion people.
A report at HackNews on the data theft revealed that the hackers placed the stolen information for sale for $500,000. According to HackNews’s reporting, the data is said to include users’ addresses and credit card information. Live Nation revealed its side of the story via an SEC filing last week.
“On May 27, 2024, a criminal threat actor offered what it alleged to be Company user data for sale via the dark web,” Live Nation wrote in the filing. “We are working to mitigate risk to our users and the Company, and have notified and are cooperating with law enforcement. As appropriate, we are also notifying regulatory authorities and users with respect to unauthorized access to personal information.”
The Monopolistic Tendencies of Ticketmaster Strike Again
This time the target is Olivia Rodrigo fansThe hack and its aftermath could be another blow to Live Nation’s reputation following the high-profile Justice Department effort to break up the company. To put it mildly, very few people are enamored with the high fees the company charges. If you add “failing to properly secure ticket buyers’ data” to that list, it’s unlikely to rally public opinion in Ticketmaster’s favor.
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