While the US Department Of Justice may have agreed to settle its wide-ranging antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation, a group of 27 state-level Attorneys General also involved in the litigation have not yet signed up to that deal, meaning the wider legal battle continues.
The judge overseeing the case has now told the state AGs that they should attempt to negotiate their own settlement with the live entertainment company - and if they can’t reach an agreement, the case may come back to court next week.
When the DoJ announced it had settled with Live Nation yesterday, Letitia James, Attorney General for the state of New York, said that the DoJ’s deal “fails to address the monopoly at the centre of this case” and would therefore “benefit Live Nation at the expense of consumers”, and that as a result “we cannot agree to it”.
She went on, “my attorney general colleagues and I have a strong case against Live Nation and we will continue our lawsuit to protect consumers and restore fair competition to the live entertainment industry”.
According to Bloomberg, the state-level Attorneys General - the chief legal officials in a US state - had asked Judge Arun Subramanian to declare a mistrial after the DoJ’s settlement came just one week into the jury trial that was considering claims of unlawful anticompetitive conduct under both federal and state law.
That would result in the current trial being abandoned, and a new trial to consider the state law claims being organised.
However, Subramanian urged the states’ lawyers to negotiate with Live Nation, to see if there were new remedies in addition to those already proposed by the live giant that could address the issues raised at a state level. If no settlement is reached, the jury trial that began last week may resume next week, focused on the remaining state-law claims.
Most of Live Nation’s critics within the music community and beyond will be hoping that the states stand their ground. Those critics are generally unhappy with the settlement deal announced yesterday, which will see Live Nation agree to abide by some new restrictions, mainly in relation to its Ticketmaster business.
It will also pay up to $280 million in damages. Which sounds like a lot, but Stephen Parker from the National Independent Venue Association pointed out yesterday, that’s “the equivalent of four days of Live Nation’s 2025 revenue”, which was $25.2 billion.
In a statement, issued as the terms of Live Nation’s settlement were still emerging, Parker added that the DoJ deal “does not appear to include any specific and explicit protections for fans, artists, or independent venues and festivals”.
Commenting on his company’s deal with the DoJ, Live Nation boss Michael Rapino insisted that the commitments his company has made will “put more power where it should be - with artists and fans”.
Though he was also keen to stress - presumably for the benefit of any investors listening - that giving venues more flexibility when it comes to where they sell their tickets, by reducing the extent of Ticketmaster’s exclusivity deals, wouldn’t actually have much impact on Live Nation’s ticketing division, because, “We have never relied on exclusivity to drive our ticketing business”.
He went on to insist that Ticketmaster’s success and growth has “simply been the result of having the best products, services and people in the industry”. That said, the company is, he added, “happy to take greater steps to empower artists and venues in their ticketing decisions, and are confident we will continue to succeed on the quality of what we deliver”.
NIVA’s members are unlikely to be convinced by that sort of corporate happy clappy rhetoric, and will doubtless be hoping that the state-level litigation will continue and result in more tangible structural changes at Live Nation. Even if an outright break-up of Live Nation and Ticketmaster - originally proposed in the DoJ’s lawsuit - is now off the agenda.
Whether or not Live Nation will be able to convince the 27 states to settle - collectively or individually - remains to be seen, but what is clear is that by the end of this week we should know whether Live Nation is imminently heading back to court or not.