The New York Budgets

Tag: Live Nation Entertainment

  • Live Nation Reaches Tentative Antitrust Settlement With U.S. Justice Department as States

    Live Nation Reaches Tentative Antitrust Settlement With U.S. Justice Department as States

    Live Nation reached a tentative settlement with the US Justice Department on Monday in the federal antitrust case brought against the entertainment giant.

    The settlement, which still requires the approval of District Judge Arun Subramanian, comes just days after the antitrust trial began in New York.

    The case was initiated under then-president Joe Biden, with prosecutors accusing Live Nation — which owns Ticketmaster — a monopolist that controlled virtually all live entertainment in the United States.

    The settlement requires Live Nation to open up the ticketing platform to competitors and to allow other promoters to stage events at certain Live Nation venues, a senior Justice Department official said.

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    Live Nation will divest up to 13 amphitheaters and pay $280 million in damages to the nearly 40 states that were parties to the antitrust lawsuit against the California-based company, the official said.

    The increased competition should result in ticket prices coming down, the official said.

    Live Nation shares surged nearly six percent on the New York Stock Exchange following the announcement.

    New York and a number of other states declined to join the settlement and said Monday that their litigation against Live Nation would continue.

    “For years, Live Nation has made enormous profits by exploiting its illegal monopoly and raising costs for shows,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said.

    “The settlement recently announced with the US Department of Justice fails to address the monopoly at the center of this case, and would benefit Live Nation at the expense of consumers,” James said in a statement.

    “We will keep fighting this case without the federal government so that we can secure justice for all those harmed by Live Nation’s monopoly.”

    A spokesperson for the New York attorney general, a Democrat, said prosecutors would file a motion with the court seeking a mistrial and file a new case against Live Nation brought solely by the states.

    The Justice Department official said talks with a number of the states were ongoing and was hopeful some of them will eventually sign off on the settlement.

    Live Nation is a behemoth in its industry: in 2025 it organized more than 55,000 events worldwide, drawing 159 million attendees.

    Beyond promotion, it holds stakes in 460 venues and, since 2010, has controlled Ticketmaster, the world’s leading ticket seller.

    The Justice Department had accused Live Nation of abusing its dominant position to pressure artists and venues into signing with it, stifle competition, and impose excessive fees on fans.

    The Trump administration’s decision to press forward with the case against Live Nation had surprised many observers, who had interpreted the recent resignation of Justice Department competition chief Gail Slater as a sign the case would be dropped.

    Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren condemned the settlement in a post on X.

    “Donald Trump just betrayed every fan who’s been exploited by Ticketmaster,” Warren said. “This fine is less than one percent of Live Nation’s revenue last year. We need to break up Ticketmaster and Live Nation.”

    John Kwoka, a professor of economics at Northeastern University, said the settlement appeared “inadequate.”

    “It does not deal with the fact that Ticketmaster is still an integrated company that has incentives that remain pretty much intact to disadvantage competitors,” Kwoka said.

    “This is a minor accomplishment in the face of what the Justice Department laid out as a course of business,” he said.

  • Antitrust Trial Begins That Could Force Breakup of Live Nation, Ticketmaster’s Parent Company

    Antitrust Trial Begins That Could Force Breakup of Live Nation, Ticketmaster’s Parent Company

    A high-stakes antitrust trial that could lead to the possible breakup of Live Nation, the parent company of Ticketmaster, got underway Tuesday in a case over whether the entertainment giant’s dominance of the concert industry amounts to an illegal monopoly.

    In opening statements, a U.S. Justice Department lawyer pointed to the company’s infamously problem-plagued effort to sell Taylor Swift tickets in 2022 as he implored the Manhattan federal jury to end the company’s hold on the market and reward artists and consumers with a competitive marketplace that will leave them with more money.

    “This case is about power, the power of a monopolist to control competition,” said the attorney, David Dahlquist. “Today, the concert ticket industry is broken.”

    David Marriott, arguing on behalf of the companies, disputed the government’s claims.

    “We’ll let the numbers do the talking,” he said. “We do not have monopoly power.”

    Judge Arun Subramanian has told jurors that evidence will be presented over the next six weeks before they’ll be left to decide whether Live Nation and Ticketmaster broke antitrust laws.

    The trial stems from a lawsuit filed in 2024 that alleged the companies have dominated the industry by suffocating competitors and controlling everything from concert promotion to ticketing.

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    Ticketmaster, which was established in 1976 and merged with Live Nation in 2010, is the world’s largest ticket seller across live music, sports, theater and more.

    Dahlquist noted that the ticket seller sparked outrage in November 2022 when its site crashed during a presale event for Swift’s Eras Tour.

    The company said the site was overwhelmed by both fans and attacks from bots, which were posing as consumers to scoop up tickets and sell them on secondary sites. The debacle prompted congressional hearings and bills in state legislatures aimed at better protecting consumers.

    Dahlquist said Live Nation’s anti-competitive practices include using long-term contracts ranging from five to seven years to keep venues from choosing rivals and blocking venues from using multiple ticket sellers.

    Ticketmaster’s clashes with artists and fans date back three decades. Pearl Jam took aim at the company in 1994, years before the Live Nation merger, although the Justice Department ultimately declined to bring a case.

    Live Nation has maintained that artists and teams set prices and decide how tickets are sold.

    Marriott said Live Nation was the world’s biggest supporter of musical artists, enabling 159 million people in 2025 to see 11,000 artists at 55,000 concerts.

    He said the government has exaggerated how much the companies make, including by saying Ticketmaster pockets $7 a ticket, when it actually gets $5 and clears less than $2 after expenses.

    Live Nation and Ticketmaster, he said, “are all about bringing joy to people’s lives.”