After the blockbuster trial that went from the U.S. Department of Justice to 34 states, a jury has decided that Live Nation Entertainment and its subsidiary Ticketmaster illegally held monopoly power in the ticketing market.
The jurors came to their decision after around five weeks of the antitrust trial, according to NBC News. Deliberations in the case began on Friday. The ruling is essentially a rebuke to the Department of Justice’s settlement with Live Nation last month — reportedly ordered directly by President Donald Trump — in which the company agreed to a series of structural changes to its business, including changes to ticketing deals with venues, capping certain service fees, and paying a $280 million fine.
A rep for Live Nation did not immediately respond to Variety‘s request for comment.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who has long contended that Live Nation is a monopoly, said in a statement to Variety: “This decision is a major step toward restoring competition and accountability in live events. Now the Court must ensure any remedy truly opens the market, and that means lowering prices, increasing innovation, and protecting fans, artists, and venues, not delivering another deal that falls short.”
Throughout the trial, the states argued that Live Nation and Ticketmaster held a monopoly over the live music industry and were responsible for driving up prices, with the states’ attorney Jeffrey Kessler branding the company a “monopolistic bully,” per the Associated Press. He claimed that they had used tactics that “kept digging the moat around the monopoly castle in order to protect their market position.”
Live Nation’s attorney David Marriott countered by claiming that the company’s standing is a testament to its strategy over the past few decades. “We are the biggest entertainment company and ticketer in the country. We’re not hiding from that fact,” he said. “We are big. That is not against the laws in the United States. Success is not against the antitrust laws in the United States.” He argued that the states did not prove that Live Nation had acted as a monopolist. “They can’t, and they didn’t,” he said.
The government initially filed suit against Live Nation two years ago during the Biden administration, with approximately 40 states also suing the company. The suit claimed that Live Nation has illegal dominance in the concert business, to a degree that harms artists, fans and venues. A victory in the lawsuit meant that Live Nation would part ways with Ticketmaster, with which it merged in 2010 during the Obama administration.
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In February, Judge Aran Subramanian had narrowed portions of the suit but allowed others — claims related to the market for large amphitheaters, related to Ticketmaster’s role in the ticketing market, and state-level claims — to proceed to trial. Subramanian had dismissed claims related to concert promotion services and those related to the ticketing market’s impact on fans.
The DOJ settlement in March led to a series of structural changes to Live Nation’s business, including the company changing its ticketing deals with venues and allowing those businesses to use multiple vendors to sell tickets to fans, instead of working with Ticketmaster exclusively, although venues will still have that option. The settlement also required Live Nation to discontinue its exclusive booking arrangements with 13 amphitheaters across the U.S., and will allow touring artists to use other promoters when performing in its owned amphitheaters.
From Variety US