A major new chapter in the ongoing battle between Songkick and Ticketmaster unfolded this week as Songkick amended its 2015 antitrust suit lawsuit to include information and accusations that it says emerged during discovery.
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Live Nation owned Ticketmaster allegedly used an old password provided by Stephen Mead, the director of Ticketmaster’s artist-services unit and a former Songkick executive, to steal trade secrets.
The accusation came to light in a new filing by Songkick in its ongoing anti-trust lawsuit against Ticketmaster and Live Nation. If proven true, it would be a criminal offense.
In a statement, Live Nation statement called the complaint “baseless” and countered that Songkick “failed to show virtually any likelihood of success on the merits.”
“In the face of those (prior) adverse rulings, Songkick has been forced to conjure up a new set of dubious arguments and theories,” the Live Nation statement continued. “Songkick’s amended complaint is based on the alleged misappropriation of information that Songkick did not even try to keep secret, in some cases could not have kept secret, and in some cases shared with artist managers that work for Live Nation.”
Ticketmaster allegedly revamped its ticketing and artists services systems, according to the Wall Street Journal, based on information that it retrieved from Songkick’s computer.