US States v. Live Nation First Witness? ‘Robbing Them Blind’ Baker

Photo Credit: Sasun Bughdaryan

The Live Nation employee who bragged to a coworker in private messages about “robbing customers blind” testified at the company’s antitrust trial.

Benjamin Baker, Head of Ticketing for Venue Nation, Live Nation’s amphitheater division, became a star witness for the 30-plus states that are suing the company in a high-profile antitrust trial. Baker’s Slack messages with a coworker a few years back included boasts about “robbing [customers] blind” and calling them stupid for paying exorbitant prices for parking and other ancillary services. A federal judge rejected Live Nation’s efforts to omit Baker’s messages from the evidence.

During his testimony on Tuesday, Baker said that his private messages were “very immature and unacceptable,” and repeatedly expressed regret and embarrassment at the messages shared on the company’s Slack.

“I used very immature and regrettable language, and that was not the language I was trying to convey,” Baker said, insisting that he was conveying surprise to a coworker that customers were willing to pay $50 for closer parking or other amenities.

But Jeffrey Kessler, an attorney for the states who read Baker’s messages aloud for the court, pushed back. “You could have charged $25!” When Baker claimed that he and his coworker were merely discussing “optional” expenses that no customer was required to purchase, Kesser shot back that for the company, it was “also optional not to exploit every single dollar it can extract from these fans.”

Kessler also asked whether Baker had been demoted or lost pay from Live Nation, to which Baker replied: “No, sir, not at this time.” Baker has, as Digital Music News previously surmised, been promoted twice in the time since the private messages were sent.

Despite the Justice Department reaching a settlement with Live Nation last week, all but six of the 39 states (and the District of Columbia) that initially joined the federal lawsuit remain in the case. The majority insist the DOJ did not serve justice to consumers, and that there is significant evidence to support breaking up the Live Nation-Ticketmaster monopoly.