The landmark federal antitrust trial against Live Nation Entertainment kicked off this week in Manhattan, with the US Department of Justice (DOJ) arguing the concert industry is “broken” — a claim the company firmly denies.
The trial, expected to last six weeks, will test whether the world’s largest live entertainment company has illegally monopolized key parts of the concert industry — and whether the 2010 merger that united Live Nation and Ticketmaster should be unwound.
The DOJ sued Live Nation and Ticketmaster in May 2024, alleging “monopolization and other unlawful conduct that thwarts competition in markets across the live entertainment industry”. The case has since been joined by a group of state attorneys general, who allege the company has leveraged its dominance to stifle competition.
Judge Arun Subramanian trimmed the government’s case considerably in his February 18 summary judgment ruling. He dismissed the claim that Live Nation monopolizes the national concert promotion market and threw out the allegation that its conduct has resulted in higher ticket prices for fans.
The jury will hear evidence on three core allegations: that Ticketmaster has monopolized primary ticketing at major concert venues through allegedly coercive, long-term exclusive contracts; that Live Nation illegally ‘ties’ access to its amphitheater network to its promotion services, effectively forcing artists who want to play Live Nation venues to hire Live Nation as their promoter; and that a specific ticketing agreement between Live Nation and Oak View Group is anticompetitive.
“the concert industry itself is broken.”
David Dahlquist, DOJ attorney
In his opening statement on Tuesday (March 3), as per Reuters, DOJ attorney David Dahlquist said: “Today, the concert ticket industry is broken; in fact the concert industry itself is broken. It is controlled by a monopolist. It is controlled by Live Nation.”
The government contends that Live Nation controls around 80% of primary ticketing at major concert venues — defined as those with a capacity of at least 8,500 and hosting 10 or more concerts a year — with its nearest competitor, AEG’s AXS, holding just 9%.
Live Nation disputes the government’s market definition, arguing the DOJ has drawn its boundaries too narrowly. When all venues are counted, the company says its ticketing market share falls to around 40%.
According to Bloomberg, prosecutors also argued that Ticketmaster’s fees are the highest they have ever been in the US, and that when venues switch away from the platform, fees drop by an average of $3.82.
In a brief opening statement on behalf of the states, Jonathan Hatch, an attorney from the New York attorney general’s office said fans paid between $1.56 and $1.72 more per ticket as a result of Live Nation’s alleged overcharges.
“We’ll let the numbers do the talking. We do not have monopoly power.”
David Marriott, ATTORNEY FOR LIVE NATION
Pushing back, Live Nation’s attorney David Marriott contested the government’s fee figures, saying Ticketmaster receives around $5 per ticket and clears less than $2 after expenses.
He told jurors the company is “all about bringing joy to people’s lives”, pointing out that it enabled 159 million people to attend 55,000 concerts in 2025. He said that the marketplace is “more competitive than it has ever been before”.
“We’ll let the numbers do the talking,” he added. “We do not have monopoly power.”
As reported by the New York Times, prosecutors pointed to Ticketmaster’s troubled 2022 presale for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour as evidence of Live Nation’s outsized market control, citing internal company messages that allegedly described the platform’s technology as being “held together by duct tape”.
Live Nation’s attorney acknowledged there were problems during the Swift sale but said it had been disrupted by a massive bot attack, and argued no other company could have handled the demand.
Expected witnesses over the coming weeks include Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino, former Ticketmaster CEO Irving Azoff, Roc Nation CEO Desiree Perez, musician Kid Rock, and Mumford & Sons keyboardist and venue owner Ben Lovett.
Early testimony is expected to focus on a dispute over ticketing at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, which switched from Ticketmaster to SeatGeek in 2021 before returning two years later. The government alleges Barclays Center suffered a loss of Live Nation-promoted tours in retaliation for the switch.
As the trial got underway, the two sides also clashed over what evidence the jury should be permitted to hear.
Live Nation filed last-minute motions, which seeking to block the DOJ from presenting evidence related to its 2018 acquisition of the ticketing assets of Songkick — which came as part of a settlement of Songkick’s own antitrust lawsuit against the company — and from arguing that its large guaranteed payments to artists serve as barriers to entry.
The DOJ opposed both motions, arguing the Songkick deal was part of a pattern of acquiring competitive threats and that the artist payment evidence is essential to understanding how Live Nation’s interconnected businesses reinforce its market dominance.
The trial is proceeding against a backdrop of political uncertainty at the DOJ.
The case was originally filed under the Biden administration, and speculation that Live Nation could seek a settlement under President Trump intensified when DOJ antitrust chief Gail Slater resigned in February after the White House reportedly requested her departure, less than a year into the role. Her top deputy, Mark Hamer, resigned shortly before that, and last month one of the DOJ’s trial lawyers on the case disclosed that he too is leaving.
Bloomberg and Semafor have reported that Live Nation has been attempting to negotiate a settlement for months, with discussions reportedly taking place with DOJ officials outside the Antitrust Division.
Live Nation appointed Trump ally Ric Grenell to its board last year, and a group of Democratic senators led by Amy Klobuchar wrote to Attorney General Pam Bondi warning that the company may be seeking to settle on favorable terms. So far, however, no deal has materialised.Music Business Worldwide
