(Reuters) -The U.S. Justice Department is conducting a criminal antitrust probe of AEG and Live Nation’s response to concert cancellations at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday, citing people with knowledge of the matter.
The probe is focused on whether the companies colluded on refund policies for cancelled concerts, according to the report. Collusion with competitors can be a criminal offense under antitrust laws.
Spokespeople for the companies and the DOJ did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Thursday.
The DOJ has filed a separate civil case seeking to break up Live Nation, and accusing the company and its TicketMaster unit of illegally inflating concert ticket prices and hurting artists.
(Reporting by Aishwarya Jain in Bengaluru and Jody Godoy in New York; Editing by Arun Koyyur and Daniel Wallis)
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