A federal judge on Wednesday dismissed portions of the Justice Department‘s antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation, but will allow other claims to proceed to trial next month.
The Justice Department and 39 states sued Live Nation in 2024, with claims that company had a monopoly across six markets and engaged in anticompetitive behavior across the live event industry. The company owns and operates venues, offers promotion services and sells tickets via Ticketmaster.
U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian ruled that claims related to the market for large amphitheaters, claims related to Ticketmaster central role in the venue-facing ticket market, and claims at the state-level will proceed to trial. The judge dismissed claims related to concert promotion services and those related to the ticketing market’s impact on fans.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Live Nation said in a statement, “We are grateful that the district court dismissed all claims in the concert promotions and concert booking markets. With those claims gone, we see no possible basis for breaking up Live Nation and Ticketmaster. We look forward to addressing the remaining claims at trial. The deficiencies we identified in the government’s monopoly power and conduct claims have not gone away, and we continue to believe that we will prevail in the end.”
In his ruling, Subramanian wrote that “Live Nation’s alleged market power and ‘unremitting’ policy, a reasonable jury could certainly find that artists were coerced into going with Live Nation as their promoter to get into its amphitheaters.”
The judge’s ruling comes amid reports that the Trump administration has been holding settlement talks with Live Nation, averting a courtroom showdown. Adding to the intrigue was the ouster last week of Gail Slater, who led the DOJ’s Antitrust Division, and who reportedly clashed with Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) fired off a letter to Bondi with questions about Slater’s removal and whether political interference was at play as the Live Nation trial neared, as well as the DOJ’s review of the proposed acquisition of Warner Bros.
In its lawsuit, the DOJ said that Live Nation-Ticketmaster had created a “self-reinforcing ‘flywheel’” that is used to “connect their multiple interconnected businesses and interests.” The lawsuit alleged that Live Nation-Ticketmaster punished venues that used more than one ticketer, that it hindered performers’ access to venues and that it bought up competitors, among other things. In conjunction with dozens of state attorneys general, the suit sought a break up of the company, which merged in 2010.
When the lawsuit was filed, Live Nation called the characterization of the company as a monopoly “a PR win for the DOJ in the short term, but it will lose in court because it ignores the basic economics of live entertainment, such as the fact that the bulk of service fees go to venues, and that competition has steadily eroded Ticketmaster’s market share and profit margin.”
The trial is scheduled to start on March 2.