It looks like the DOJ isn’t going to break up Live Nation and Ticketmaster

Source: TechCrunch

Background

After a high‑profile antitrust lawsuit, the U.S. Justice Department said Monday that it has tentatively settled with Ticketmaster and its parent company, Live Nation.

The combined Live Nation and Ticketmaster, merged in 2010, control the majority of ticket sales and venue bookings in the U.S., leaving talent little choice but to work with these companies. Customers have been fed up for years with dynamic pricing issues that can drive up ticket costs by thousands of dollars (often without consulting the artists), as well as the frustrating ticket‑buying process—sales for Taylor Swift’s Eras tour were so widely aggravating that they triggered government scrutiny.

Settlement Details

According to the AP, the settlement would require Live Nation to pay a fine of up to $280 million and divest at least 13 venues to give competitors more opportunity.

However, several state Attorneys General involved in the lawsuit are not appeased by the settlement.

“The settlement recently announced with the U.S. Department of Justice fails to address the monopoly at the center of this case, and would benefit Live Nation at the expense of consumers,”
— New York Attorney General Letitia James, in a statement.

Twenty‑six out of thirty state attorneys general who sued the company alongside the DOJ chose to join Attorney General James in continuing the lawsuit against Live Nation.

Washington Attorney General Nick Brown also said that the settlement “does not adequately remedy” the issue for concertgoers.

“For too long, Live Nation has raked in billions from a monopoly that has made it harder for consumers to see the artists they love, stifled artists, and increased the price of tickets for countless music fans,”
— Nick Brown.

Trial Testimonies

The trial had lasted less than a week when the DOJ and Live Nation agreed to the settlement, but several notable testimonies emerged.

• John Abbamondi, former CEO of the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets and the Barclays Center, testified about his 2021 decision to work with a different ticket‑sales company rather than Ticketmaster.
• A phone call between Abbamondi and Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino was played in the courtroom. According to The New York Times, the recorded conversation was adversarial and “expletive‑laden.”
• Abbamondi told the jury that Rapino made a comment he interpreted as a “veiled threat — maybe not‑so‑veiled threat” that Live Nation would schedule fewer concerts at the Barclays Center as a result of the ticketing change.

Live Nation Statistics

Live Nation reported that it sold over 646 million tickets last year and put on over 54,000 events internationally. Within the U.S., Live Nation owns 150 venues and invested $1 billion last year to build an additional 18 live‑music venues.

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