Senators Amy Klobuchar, Elizabeth Warren, and Corey Booker are calling on the Southern District of New York to “closely scrutinize” Live Nation’s surprise settlement with the Department of Justice following reports that the deal may have been shaped by outside political influence.
In a letter filed to Judge Arun Subramanian on Tuesday, April 14, the senators stated, “The facts surrounding the settlement also point toward a deal made in response to political pressure rather than the public interest.” They asked the court to examine the deal and potentially “reject the settlement if it is not in the public interest.”
Along with Klobuchar, Warren, and Booker, the letter was signed by Senators Richard Blumenthal, Mazie Hirono, and Peter Welch. “Fans, artists, and independent venues have suffered for too long under Live Nation–Ticketmaster’s monopoly control of live events,” the senators wrote. “The recent settlement between Live Nation-Ticketmaster and the Justice Department fails to address these fundamental issues and stops far short of prying open this industry to new competition, innovation, and choice for consumers.”
Reps for Live Nation did not immediately return Rolling Stone‘s request for comment.
Live Nation abruptly settled with the Department of Justice in early March, just one week into the highly anticipated trial. The government’s deal was signed by seven of the co-plaintiff states that had signed onto the original suit, but more than 30 state attorneys general, plus Washington D.C., moved forward with the case. (Closing arguments in the trial took place last Thursday while jury deliberations remain ongoing.)
While the proposed settlement included monetary damages and concessions involving ticketing and Live Nation’s amphitheater business, many critics said it did not go far enough in tackling the company’s dominance in the live-entertainment industry. The Senators, in their new letter, reiterated those concerns, along with others about how the deal was struck.
“Congress enacted the antitrust laws to protect against increased prices, reduced opportunity, and stifled innovation that occurs when dominant firms abuse their market position,” the letter reads. “The proposed settlement terms, negotiated under suspicious circumstances, do not include the kinds of remedies that consumers and small businesses deserve.”
These allegedly “suspicious circumstances,” the letter details, center on the ouster of several top officials in the Justice Department’s antitrust division — including its former head Gail Slater and one of her deputies, Roger Alford — as well as the lobbying efforts of Mike Davis, a MAGA influencer and lawyer reportedly hired by Live Nation. For instance, the letter cites a talk Alford gave last August, not long after he was fired, in which he said Live Nation and Ticketmaster had “paid a bevy of cozy MAGA friends to roam the halls of the [Antitrust Division] in defense of their monopoly abuses.”
The letter goes on to mention a recent Wall Street Journal report that indicated President Donald Trump intervened in discussions preceding the Live Nation settlement. After hearing about the case from several prominent people, Trump started to ask what was holding up a deal.
On March 5, Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino, the company’s lawyers, and DOJ officials (including former Attorney General Pam Bondi) reportedly met at the White House and struck a deal that was signed that day. The court, however, wasn’t told about the deal until a hearing four days later, March 9, catching both the judge, and some of the DOJ’s own lawyers, by surprise.
“As this court is aware, the Justice Department lawyers trying the case were not involved in the settlement discussions and were not even aware of its existence prior to its filing,” the letter reads. “The state attorneys general were also kept in the dark. That the settlement was hashed out without input from the lawyers trying the case demonstrates this was not a settlement struck in response to perceived litigation risk or to protect the public from harms resulting from alleged anticompetitive behavior.”
The senators pointedly added that “no one representing the interests of consumers, fans, artists, or venues was present.”
After learning of the settlement on March 9, Judge Subramanian called the timeline around the settlement “unacceptable” and said it showed an “absolute disrespect for the court, the jury, and this entire process.” A few days later, he issued an order that was standard, but nevertheless pointed, calling for “all relevant communications” pertaining to the settlement to be “retained.”
