WASHINGTON, Oct 6 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court

declined on Monday to hear a bid by Live Nation and its

subsidiary Ticketmaster to move a proposed consumer class action

lawsuit over rigged ticket prices out of federal court and into

private arbitration.

The justices turned away Live Nation's appeal of a lower

court's decision to allow the litigation to move forward in

federal court because the arbitration rules at issue were

overtly beneficial to companies and unfair to consumers.

Beverly Hills, California-based Live Nation was accused by

ticket purchasers in the 2022 lawsuit filed in Los Angeles of

monopolizing ticketing services, allowing the company to charge

artificially high prices in violation of antitrust law. The

plaintiffs are seeking unspecified monetary damages.

Live Nation in its challenge to the lawsuit tried to push

the consumers into arbitration at New Era ADR, which launched in

2021 and offered a new "mass" arbitration procedure. Under this

procedure, a neutral arbitrator who presides over the matter

could group together cases and make a ruling that would apply to

them and other subsequent disputes.

Companies often promote arbitration as a more efficient way

for individual consumers to air their disputes outside of court.

Arbitration provisions can limit or bar consumers from forming

class actions in court that might put greater pressure on a

company to settle claims. Class actions, on the other hand, can

expose companies to tens of millions of dollars, if not

billions, in liability.

Mass arbitration is relatively new, and Live Nation and

other companies have said that lawyers for plaintiffs

increasingly are filing thousands of identical arbitration

claims, overwhelming providers.

A federal judge in 2023 declined Live Nation's request to

move the claims out of court and into private arbitration.

The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals

last year upheld that decision. The 9th Circuit said New Era's

mass arbitration rules were "so dense, convoluted and internally

contradictory to be borderline unintelligible." New Era is not a

defendant in the litigation.

Live Nation in its petition asking the Supreme Court to take

up the matter said the 9th Circuit decision "threatens

arbitration in general and hamstrings good-faith efforts to

combat the destructive effects of mass arbitration filings."

New Era in a Supreme Court filing said its rules "have

remained centered on keeping mass arbitration workable,

accessible, fast, and merits-based for all parties involved."

The consumers in their Supreme Court filing denied that the

lower courts showed any hostility to federal arbitration.

Live Nation faces other antitrust lawsuits over its

ticketing practices, including an antitrust action filed in

federal court in Manhattan by the U.S. Justice Department and a

group of states.