Ticketmaster’s owner, Live Nation Entertainment, Inc, has reached a provisional settlement with the Department of Justice less than a week into an anti-trust trial.
The case accused Live Nation of using threats, retaliation and other tactics to “suffocate the competition” by controlling virtually every aspect of the industry, from concert promotion to ticketing.
Sources familiar with the case told Politico that if the deal is approved Live Nation will have to pay around $200 million in damages to participating states, but it will not be broken up despite accusations of a monopoly.
New York Attorney General Letitia James slammed the deal in a press statement Monday and vowed to “keep fighting this case without the federal government.”
“The settlement recently announced with the U.S. Department of Justice fails to address the monopoly at the center of this case, and would benefit Live Nation at the expense of consumers,” she wrote. “We cannot agree to it.”
James added that 20 states are planning to continue pursuing the lawsuit, first brought under the Biden administration in 2024.
According to the Politico sources, Ticketmaster will be required to open parts of its platform to other ticketing companies as part of the settlement. That would allow rivals like SeatGeek to list tickets directly through the entertainment giant’s technology.
New restrictions will also be placed on the exclusivity contracts agreed between Ticketmaster and music venues, the sources say. The Justice Department previously argued the company controls around 78 percent of the United States’ major amphitheatres.
The deals will be limited to just four years, and venues will be allowed to list a portion of their tickets with Ticketmaster’s rivals such as StubHub.
Ticketmaster’s service fees at amphitheaters will also be capped at 15 percent of a ticket’s price.
“This will revolutionize the ticketing marketplace,” one of the sources claimed. “These are innovative technological solutions to a very difficult problem with prying open the marketplace.”
The opening statements in the trial were heard last Tuesday, before details of the deal emerged.
David Dahlquist, a DOJ attorney, accused Live Nation of building a monopoly.
“This case is about power, the power of a monopolist to control competition,” he said last week. “Today, the concert ticket industry is broken.”
David Marriott, a representative for Live Nation denied the claims.
“We’ll let the numbers do the talking,” Marriott said. “We do not have monopoly power.”
Ticketmaster and its parent company have long been criticized for the price of concert tickets.
In November 2022, the Ticketmaster website crashed after fans rushed to buy tickets to the U.S. leg of Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour. The resale cost of tickets for the tour rocketed in price, with some even selling for as much as $22,000.
In 2023, Robert Smith, lead singer of The Cure, said that he was “sickened” after fans shared screenshots of the cost of seeing his band live. According to him, his band had set the prices for tickets but not for resale prices.
Last year, President Trump signed an executive order directing Attorney General Pam Bondi and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to ensure that scalpers, who offer tickets at a higher price than their face value, comply with Internal Revenue Service rules.
The Independent has contacted the DOJ and Live Nation Entertainment, Inc, for comment.