Earlier this week, the U.S. Department of Justice and Live Nation reached a settlement in the DOJ’s antitrust lawsuit against the concert giant. During the trial, which lasted only a week, representatives for Live Nation had moved to exclude a collection of Slack direct messages from 2022 between two of the company’s regional directors from the evidence presented to the jury. Bloomberg and a number of other publications have, as of today (March 12), successfully petitioned New York federal judge Arun Subramanian to release the chats.
The conversations are between Ben Baker, now head of ticketing for Venue Nation, and Jeff Weinhold, currently a senior director in the ticketing department. Baker and Weinhold joke about overcharging and price-gouging fans—“Robbing them blind, baby,” Baker brags in one exchange pertaining to a Kid Rock show in Tampa Bay—as well as being able to raise prices on ancillary services such as parking seemingly at will. “These people are so stupid,” Baker writes. “I almost feel bad taking advantage of them BAHAHAHAHAHA.”
Live Nation’s original court filing described the DMs as “off-the-cuff banter, not policy, decision-making, or facts of consequence.” In a statement the company has since added: “The Slack exchange from one junior staffer to a friend absolutely doesn’t reflect our values or how we operate.” Baker was previously scheduled to testify at the trial.
The DOJ’s deal will require Live Nation to cap its exclusivity contracts with venues at four years and its ticketing service fees at 15%. The company will also have to divest from exclusive booking agreements at 13 venues, allow rivals like SeatGeek and Eventbrite to list tickets on its online marketplace, and pay out nearly $300 million to states that take the settlement offer. However, a number of state attorneys general who originally signed on to the lawsuit are planning to move forward with the case, potentially calling for a mistrial.
