Live Nation Reaches Settlement With DOJ, But States Keep Fighting

Live Nation has reportedly reached a settlement with the Department of Justice to resolve federal antitrust accusations without selling Ticketmaster, but several state attorneys general are planning to move ahead with the case.

The settlement, first reported Monday by Politico, would require big concessions from Live Nation including opening Ticketmaster’s platform to rivals, limiting how it uses exclusive deals with venues, and selling several amphitheaters. Live Nation would also pay $200 million to 40 states involved in the case.

But crucially, it would not require the company to divest Ticketmaster, the giant ticketing platform Live Nation acquired in a 2010 merger that has sparked monopoly gripes ever since. When the DOJ filed its case in 2024, it said breaking up the two companies was the ultimate goal of the lawsuit.

In a statement Monday, New York Attorney General Letitia James said her office “cannot agree” to the settlement because it “fails to address the monopoly at the center of this case, and would benefit Live Nation at the expense of consumers.” James said that 26 other states, including California, Ohio and District of Columbia, would also continue pursuing the case.

The proposed settlement, which came a week after trial began, was announced in federal court on Monday morning, according to Reuters. But only 10 state AG’s have so far signed onto the agreement, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The sudden settlement was met with scolding for both sides inside the courtroom from Judge Arun Subramanian, Inner City Press reports, who questioned why he had not been given more information on the talks. State lawyers reportedly argued they needed a pause in the trial to move ahead without the DOJ’s team of lawyers, and might even request a mistrial.

Representatives for both DOJ and Live Nation did not immediately return requests for comment.

The feds and dozens of states sued Live Nation in 2024, claiming the concert giant, which merged with Ticketmaster in 2010, runs an illegal “flywheel” — reaping revenue from ticket buyers, using that money to sign artists, then leveraging that repertoire to lock venues into exclusive ticketing contracts that yield ever more revenue.

The case went to trial last week after a judge pared down the case but refused to dismiss it. He allowed the DOJ to pursue claims that Live Nation abused its vast portfolio of amphitheaters to force artists to use its promotion services, and that it forced venues into signing agreements to exclusively use Ticketmaster as their primary ticketing service.

In opening statements on Tuesday, the DOJ told jurors the concert industry is “broken” and “controlled by Live Nation.” Firing back, Live Nation said the feds had “cherry-picked” evidence to support such claims in an industry that’s “more competitive than ever before.”

The government’s first witness was John Abbamondi, former CEO of the owner of Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, who testified Wednesday that he believed Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino had threatened to withhold major artists if the venue switched from Ticketmaster to rival ticketer SeatGeek. His testimony saw the government play a tape recording of a heated phone call in which the two big wigs discussed the dispute.

Monday’s deal will require Ticketmaster to make key changes to its platform, including allowing third parties like SeatGeek to list tickets directly through its technology, according to Politico’s report. It will also limit the company’s use of exclusive Ticketmaster contracts, limiting those deals to only four years and allowing venues to allocate a portion of their tickets to rival ticketing services.

The deal will also address the amphitheater portion of the case, requiring Live Nation to divest 10 such venues to reduce its dominance in that space, the report says, and will require Live Nation to cap Ticketmaster’s service fees at its amphitheaters, limiting them to 15 percent of a ticket’s price.

In her statement, New York’s James said she and the other states “have a strong case against Live Nation” and would continue to litigate it: “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.”

The other states continuing the case are Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming.