Ticketmaster has hit Songkick with a new series of depositions and subpoenas aimed at forcing tycoon Len Blavatnik’s Access Industries to disclose how much it has invested in the music discovery and ticketing platform.
More than a year after it began legal action, Songkick last month accused Ticketmaster and owner Live Nation of hacking its systems to steal trade secrets and confidential information.
Now Ticketmaster is demanding to find out how much Access has invested in Songkick. Lawyers for Ticketmaster said the documents are needed to investigate a claim that Songkick’s fight with the ticket operator has diminished its market value.
Access’ legal team fought the request, arguing that their own internal valuations are not relevant to the case. Following Ticketmaster’s supplemental briefing, Access has until the end of today (Wednesday) to respond.
Billionaire Blavatnik’s Access invested $15m (£11.4m/€10.1m) in Songkick last August. The company, which has more than 12 million monthly users, said the money would be used to “enhance the connection between artists and fans,” with a focus on increasing ticket sales and preventing scalping.
In a statement released last month, Live Nation said: “In late 2015, Songkick elected to file a baseless antitrust lawsuit against Ticketmaster.
“Since then, the case has gone poorly for Songkick. It sought a preliminary injunction and lost, with the court concluding that Songkick’s complaint ‘failed to show virtually any likelihood of success on the merits.’ And the court granted in full defendants’ motion to dismiss a significant swath of Songkick’s antitrust claims concluding that ‘there is no plausible argument’ supporting the baseless position Songkick adopted.”
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