- A bipartisan coalition of 34 AGs won at trial against Live Nation and Ticketmaster after a jury found the companies violated federal and state antitrust laws by eliminating competition and driving up costs for fans, artists, and venues.
- The complaint alleged that Live Nation used a self-reinforcing “flywheel” that linked concert promotion, venue ownership, ticketing, and artist management to maintain monopoly power, including through exclusive long-term ticketing contracts, retaliation against rivals and venues, acquisitions of smaller promoters, and conditioning artists’ access to amphitheaters on using Live Nation’s promotion services.
- According to the New York AG’s Office, the jury found after a five-week trial that Ticketmaster unlawfully maintains a monopoly in ticketing services at major concert venues and that Live Nation has a monopoly in the market for large amphitheaters used by artists. The coalition will seek remedies and financial penalties at a separate bench trial.
- As previously reported, the verdict follows the states’ decision to keep litigating after the DOJ reached a proposed $280 million settlement with Live Nation-Ticketmaster that the AGs rejected.