INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — On Thursday, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced in a press conference an antitrust lawsuit against Ticketmaster and its owner, Live Nation Entertainment.

The United States Department of Justice accused the pair of having an illegal monopoly on live events in the U.S. that squeezes out competition.

The lawsuit was filed in New York by the DOJ, 30 states and district attorneys general. Both federal and state governments are seeking a jury trial and a potential breakup of the companies.

Max Huffman, vice dean and professor at Indiana University’s Mckinney School of Law, with expertise in antitrust matters joined Daybreak to discuss more.

“It’s not illegal to be rich and to make a lot of money as a monopoly. But what is illegal is to use your position as a monopoly to either harm competition and ultimately to produce harm to consumers,” Huffman said. “And so, what they’re really talking about is a course of conduct that includes things like exclusive dealing arrangements where they’re saying if you want to use us as a business partner, you know, you have to only use us, you have to sign an exclusive contract.”

This is considered an Exclusionary Agreement. According to Contractcounsel.com, it’s a contract that aims to restrict a party’s ability to make business arrangements with other companies for a certain period of time.

Huffman says that this makes it impossible for competitors to break in and participate in the ticket selling market.  

This case is expected to proceed for an extended amount of time. Huffman says, it is best for Live Nation and Ticketmaster to arrange a settlement with the federal and state governments instead of going to trial.

For more information on this case, view the interview above.