May 23 (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department, along with a group of 30 states and the District of Columbia, filed a lawsuit to break up Live Nation on Thursday, arguing the concert promoter and its Ticketmaster unit illegally inflated concert ticket prices and hurt artists.

Politicians, concert fans and experts have called on U.S. authorities to reconsider investigating the 2010 merger of Live Nation Entertainment and Ticketmaster following the botched ticket sales of Taylor Swift's 2023 "Eras" concert tour.

Here is a timeline of events.

(Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai)