On Monday, Live Nation-Ticketmaster agreed to settle a federal antitrust lawsuit with the Department of Justice. Eight states so far have indicated they plan to join the settlement, a district attorney said in court, and four others remain unclear on their status. The case alleged that it illegally monopolized parts of the live events industry, leading to higher ticket prices for consumers and locking venues into exclusive deals. The terms of the settlement have not yet been made public, but reporting in Politico and Bloomberg suggests that it won’t force Live Nation to split off from Ticketmaster.
27 states and DC will continue pushing their case, and have already filed for a mistrial.
Reports suggest the deal includes a sum of around $200 million in damages, plus requirements for Live Nation to open parts of its ticketing platform to competitors, loosen exclusive ticketing contracts for venues, divest some of the amphitheaters it controls, and cap Ticketmaster service fees for amphitheaters. It comes a week into a trial in a New York federal court.
Emily Peterson-Cassin, policy director at the Demand Progress Education Fund, said in a statement on Monday that “Donald Trump threw Swifties under the bus by settling with the corporate monopoly that cost them tickets to the Eras Tour. He should know ‘all too well’ that siding with a giant monopoly over the American people makes him look like ‘the smallest man who ever lived.’”
“Donald Trump threw Swifties under the bus by settling with the corporate monopoly that cost them tickets to the Eras Tour”
Taylor Swift and her legions of fans have been at the epicenter of the lawsuit against Live Nation and Ticketmaster after the ticketing platform infamously crashed in 2022 during the presale for Swift’s Eras Tour, which Ticketmaster said had “historically unprecedented demand.” The incident not only sparked outrage from Swifties, but also drew renewed attention on Ticketmaster’s stranglehold on the live entertainment industry.
Judge Arun Subramanian indicated there are three options for how to move forward: let the government continue examining the AEG COO who the DOJ was partway through questioning on Friday, give states a few days to “rearrange the chairs,” or grant their motion for a mistrial and figure out the rest from there. The court went with something close to option two — he dismissed the jury until Monday, giving him a chance to review the motion for mistrial and the states an opportunity to see if they can get what they need to continue at trial.
The judge was displeased about how the settlement came about. He said it was “outrageous” that neither party mentioned the possibility of a settlement until after jury selection. Even lead DOJ counsel David Dahlquist did not know that there was a signed term sheet indicating the details of the settlement until Monday morning, at the same time that the judge was informed. “You’re a lead counsel for the United States and you didn’t receive this term sheet until I did at 6:30 AM this morning?” Subramanian asked. “Correct,” Dahlquist said.
Attorneys for the DOJ and Live Nation told the court that Antitrust Division chief Omeed Assefi and Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino had signed the executed term sheet on March 5th, a day before counsel discussed the possibility of settlement in chambers, Subramanian said. The DOJ was partway through the examination of AEG COO by the time the trial ended Friday, causing a logistical quagmire for how to continue. On Friday morning, Subramanian said, neither side indicated to him that there was already a signed term sheet about a deal. Attorneys for both sides said they hadn’t known at the time that a tentative deal was signed. “It didn’t need to happen this way,” Subramanian said. “It shows absolute disrespect to the court, to the jury … it’s just entirely unacceptable.”
Subramanian ordered Assefi and Rapino to appear in court at 8:30 AM on Tuesday to discuss the deal.
... continue reading