The Italian Antitrust Authority has sanctioned the CTS Eventim-TicketOne group for having violated Article 102 of the TFEU, having implemented a complex exclusionary abusive strategy that has precluded competing ticketing operators from selling a high number of tickets for live music events.
This conduct also caused damage to consumers who could not benefit from better services and lower prices charged by other ticketing operators.
The abusive conduct has started in 2013 and is still ongoing, consisting in the stipulation of exclusive contracts with producers and organizers of live pop music events, as well as in the acquisitions of some important national promoters, in the imposition of exclusivity on local promoters, in the stipulation of commercial agreements with smaller or local ticketing operators and in retaliatory and boycott behaviors towards competing groups, also to exclude new ticketing operators such as Ticketmaster from the relevant market.
The implementation of the group’s abusive strategy also harmed consumers because the dominant company was able to charge higher commissions for the sale of tickets for live music events than its competitors, also limiting the choice and purchase possibilities of consumers between the different ticketing operators (so-called multihoming).
Text of the provision available at: https://www.agcm.it/dotcmsdoc/allegati-news/A523%20Chiusura.pdf
