A New York jury found on April 15 that Live Nation and Ticketmaster held a monopoly over concert venues and ticket sales.
The verdict came after four days of deliberation, and followed a years-long trial that began in May 2024 under the Biden administration. The judge has asked both sides to submit a proposed schedule by the end of next week for the court to deal with the remedies phase of the case.
The April 15 loss could end up costing Live Nation a hefty sum, including the $1.72 per ticket the jury said the company had overcharged buyers in 22 states, as well as any financial penalties the court chooses to impose.
The court may also order Live Nation to divest control of some of its subsidiaries and concert venues.
In March, Live Nation had settled a lawsuit brought by the Department of Justice (DOJ), but dozens of states—including New York—vowed to continue that suit. Although the settlement placed caps on ticket prices and forced Live Nation to allow sales by competitors, the states said it did not go far enough.
“The threat of steering shows away from venues allows Live Nation to exercise its monopoly power to get better promotion deals and impose Ticketmaster on venues,” the DOJ complaint reads.
“The knowledge and awareness in the industry—that Live Nation will route shows away from venues that do not choose Ticketmaster—is so widespread that other intermediaries deliver threats and warnings to venues for Live Nation’s benefit.”
In one case, the complaint states, Live Nation rerouted some of its artists away from a concert venue that decided to use ticket seller SeatGeek, which offered it a larger share of the profits.
Live Nation demanded that the venue use Ticketmaster instead and disable second-party ticket sales on its website. It backed down eventually, but only after the concert venue agreed to share some of the extra profit it made through SeatGeek, according to the DOJ.
Ticketmaster has been around since 1976, and merged with Live Nation in 2010 to form Live Nation Entertainment Inc. Since then, it has gained control of 86 percent of the concert market, according to states’ attorney Jeffrey Kessler.
“It is time to hold them accountable,” he told jurors at the end of the trial.
“Plaintiffs do not purport to have ‘direct evidence’ of monopoly power with respect to either their ticketing or promotion markets,” Live Nation’s attorneys wrote in their court filing. “There is no evidence that anything Defendants did led to higher prices, less output, or reduced quality to venues or artists.”
An attorney for the company, David Marriott, told jurors that the company’s growth and market dominance over the years is not illegal.
“Success is not against the antitrust laws in the United States,” he said during closing arguments. The company said an official statement is forthcoming.