On July 6, Juice Leisure submitted a proper letter to the USA Division of Justice and the Federal Commerce Fee alleging Dwell Nation, Inc. has engaged in fraud, monopolistic conduct, misleading enterprise practices and company espionage. The letter was submitted in response to the DOJ and FTC’s public inquiry into unfair and anticompetitive practices in dwell ticketing as directed beneath President Trump’s Government Order 14254.
Juice Leisure has been engaged in a lawsuit with Dwell Nation for fifteen years, centered across the allegations offered. The lawsuit, Juice Leisure v. Dwell Nation, is the longest persevering with business litigation in opposition to Dwell Nation within the nation. At present earlier than the U.S. Federal Court docket for the District of New Jersey, the Plaintiffs have been awaiting trial for over 5 years, regardless of prevailing in abstract judgment greater than seven years in the past.
Thomas Dorfman, CEO of Juice Leisure, says: “This case isn’t just about one firm, it’s concerning the integrity of the dwell leisure trade in America. It’s time for transparency, accountability and honest competitors within the trade.”
Juice Leisure’s letter accuses Dwell Nation of working a hid, non-traditional revenue mannequin that derives income from secretly and arbitrarily negotiated rebates with distributors. That is finished with out the information or consent of its fiduciaries, together with co-promoters, artists, brokers, managers, regulators and followers. Via this questionable enterprise mannequin, Dwell Nation’s manufacturing/promotional profitability alone averages between 20-45% of the overall ticket gross sales per occasion/manufacturing, and never the 1-2% Dwell Nation discloses to the general public and fiduciaries. This charge of profitability might be (and infrequently are) maintained by Dwell Nation to its personal unique profit, even when ticket gross sales don’t cowl the price of manufacturing.
These practices have triggered an increase in manufacturing prices, straight leading to elevated ticket costs for shoppers. Dwell Nation’s narrative that market forces and scalpers are in charge is a deliberate misrepresentation to deflect investigation into its enterprise practices.
Moreover, Juice Leisure claims Dwell Nation makes use of deceptive contracts, false projections, and maintains at the very least two units of monetary outcomes per manufacturing—one nearly all the time worthwhile (non-public) and one much less/not worthwhile (public).
The letter incriminates Dwell Nation’s CEO, Mr. Michael Rapino, who’s straight concerned within the execution and upkeep of this mannequin, in addition to Ticketmaster. In accordance with Juice Leisure, this enterprise mannequin can not operate with out Ticketmaster’s management of ticketing knowledge/income, permitting Dwell Nation to leverage its monopoly energy in rebate negotiations and dominate the dwell leisure trade.
Dwell Nation can also be accused of intimidation, corruption and espionage focusing on opponents, distributors and litigants to keep up its dominance
These allegations are supported by over 500 items of proof, together with accounting data, inside emails, audio recordings, depositions and extra. The claims are additional validated by Dr. Richard Barnet, the nation’s prime tutorial skilled within the Dwell Leisure trade. His skilled report, which was initially suppressed by a former Dwell Nation legal professional, was recovered in 2024 by the late Congressman Invoice Pascrell from buried federal courtroom recordsdata.