Business Law; Anti-trust law

A New York-based online concert-ticket seller, Songkick, has helped major artists sell passes directly to fans so as to avoid scalpers. The company recently filed a lawsuit against Ticketmaster and its parent company, Live Nation, claiming that Ticketmaster and Live Nation are engaging in anti-competitive behavior by pressuring touring artists and concert venues to not work with Songkick’s service. Songkick claims Live Nation broke federal antitrust laws, by attempting to destroy competition in the artist pre-sale ticketing services market. Artists use Songkick to offer tickets to fan-club members before they go on sale to the general public and to keep prized passes out of the hands of scalpers who want to sell them on the secondary market. The company says it has worked with artists including Kenny Chesney, Metallica, Adele and Mumford & Sons. Link (Links to an external site.) https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/8094201/ticketmaster-songkick-settle-lawsuit-110-million

Do you believe Ticketmaster and Live Nation have violated anti-trust laws? Explain. In answering the question, please define what is anti-trust and refer to any key laws in the eText that apply to this case.