DOJ unlikely to force breakup of Live Nation and Ticketmaster

After a closely watched antitrust case, the U.S. Justice Department said Monday that it has tentatively settled with Ticketmaster and its parent company, Live Nation.

Since merging in 2010, Live Nation and Ticketmaster together have controlled most ticket sales and venue bookings in the United States, leaving artists and other talent with limited alternatives outside those companies. Consumers have long expressed frustration with dynamic pricing practices that can push ticket prices up by thousands of dollars, often without consulting artists, as well as with the ticket purchase process itself. Sales for Taylor Swift’s Eras tour were so widely criticised that they helped trigger government scrutiny.

According to the Associated Press, the proposed settlement would require Live Nation to pay a fine of up to $280 million and divest at least 13 venues to create more opportunities for competitors. But several state attorneys general involved in the lawsuit have said the settlement does not go far enough.

“The settlement recently announced with the U.S. Department of Justice fails to address the monopoly at the centre of this case, and would benefit Live Nation at the expense of consumers,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement. “We cannot agree to it.”

Twenty-six of the 30 state attorneys general who sued the company alongside the Justice Department chose to join James in continuing the case against Live Nation.

Washington Attorney General Nick Brown also said the proposed 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,” he said.

The trial had been underway for less than a week before the Justice Department and Live Nation agreed to the tentative settlement. Even so, several notable pieces of testimony emerged during the proceedings.

One of them came from John Abbamondi, the former CEO of the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets and the Barclays Centre, where the team plays. He spoke about a 2021 decision to work with a ticketing company other than Ticketmaster.

A phone call between Abbamondi and Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino was played in court, and, according to The New York Times, the recorded exchange was confrontational and filled with expletives.

Abbamondi told the jury last week that Rapino remarked on the call that he took as a “veiled threat — maybe not-so-veiled threat” that Live Nation would send fewer concerts to Barclays Centre because of the ticketing switch.

Live Nation said last month that it sold more than 646 million tickets last year and staged over 54,000 events worldwide. In the United States alone, the company owns 150 venues and invested $1 billion last year to build 18 additional live-music venues.