Antitrust

After a chaotic week following the Justice Department’s mid-trial settlement with Live Nation-Ticketmaster, the antitrust trial picked back up surprisingly smoothly on Monday – this time, with dozens of states leading the case. This isn’t the outcome the states originally wanted. Out of concerns about being able to effectively take over the case and fear […]

The Live Nation-Ticketmaster trial is back on. Dozens of states are expected to move forward with their claims against the company’s alleged concert industry monopoly beginning on Monday, following a brief hearing on Friday. The Justice Department and a handful of states have accepted settlements with the company, but the majority of the 40 state […]

Instead of moving forward with a jury trial against Live Nation-Ticketmaster as expected, the Justice Department announced a settlement Monday that omitted what used to be on the top of its wish list: a breakup. What the DOJ did get was a series of concessions that some industry stakeholders found unsatisfying and even baffling. There […]

Was it a threat or a reality check? That’s a key question in the government’s anti-monopoly case against Live Nation, which is currently in limbo after the Justice Department reached a settlement with the company and as dozens of states push ahead. The Verge obtained the audio of a 2021 call at the center of […]

The Live Nation trial is not over yet. Several states look to be headed to trial on their own as soon as Monday unless they hash out a settlement in the next few days. On Tuesday, a day after the Justice Department revealed in court it had reached a settlement with Live Nation that a […]

John Abbamondi had orders to let the CEO of Ticketmaster down easy. In April 2021, Abbamondi was the CEO of BSE Global, the company that ran Brooklyn arena the Barclays Center. BSE Global’s existing Ticketmaster contract would expire at the end of September, and Abbamondi and his team had evaluated proposals from SeatGeek, AXS, and […]

In a downtown Manhattan courtroom on Monday, lawyers for the US Justice Department and 40 state and district attorneys general warned a jury that the concert industry was being squeezed by a monopolist: Live Nation-Tickemaster. After amassing dominance over ticketing and artists’ use of large amphitheaters, lead DOJ counsel David Dahlquist alleged, Live Nation constructed […]