DOJ Pushes for Jury Trial in Live Nation Antitrust Battle — High-Stakes Summary Judgment Hearing Set for January 23rd

The Justice Department is firing back against Live Nation’s summary judgment push – and demanding a jury trial – amid an intensifying antitrust showdown.

Mid-November brought Live Nation’s formal request for summary judgment. In short, the Ticketmaster parent pointed to the alleged absence of a demonstrable monopoly and resulting “actual anticompetitive effects.”

Additionally, taking issue with the market definitions behind the DOJ’s lawsuit, Live Nation claimed that expanding them to encompass “all major concert venues and the artists that seek to play in them” would dramatically reduce Ticketmaster’s alleged market share.

“Plaintiffs’ expert calculates that Ticketmaster’s market share in primary ticketing services drops from a monopoly-like 86% to a mere 49% when stadiums are included in the relevant market—as they were when the government challenged the Live Nation-Ticketmaster merger,” Live Nation wrote.

Of course, there are a number of other angles to the promoter’s argument, which we previously broke down in detail.

Returning to the summary judgment opposition, then, the DOJ opened by criticizing Live Nation and Ticketmaster as “[u]nwilling to defend their anticompetitive conduct in front of a jury.”

Furthermore, each of the defendants’ arguments allegedly “collapses in the face of evidence” – including the claim of a 49% market share when also accounting for stadiums.

“Besides improperly conflating data sources,” the Justice Department penned here, “Defendants’ assertion is flatly contradicted by evidence showing that Defendants’ market share exceeds 80% when using a methodologically sound calculation.”

What about possible consumer harm (including increased prices) stemming from Live Nation’s alleged maneuvers to compel venues to stick with Ticketmaster?

In the DOJ’s view, contrary to the defendants’ representations, the alleged “anticompetitive conduct has successfully deterred venues from choosing competing ticketers, harming competition by reducing quality and innovation and increasing price.”

“NBA/NHL arenas that switched away from Ticketmaster between 2017–2024 lost on average more than five LN shows per year relative to NBA/NHL arenas that did not switch,” the Justice Department wrote. “And NBA/NHL arenas that switched to Ticketmaster saw an increase of ten or more LN concerts on average per year relative to NBA/NHL arenas with unchanged ticketers.”

Not stopping there, the DOJ supported its monopolization and tying claims by underscoring Live Nation’s alleged use of “proxies” – with Oak View Group mentioned by name – “to coerce venues into signing with Ticketmaster.”

Also covered in the multifaceted document are alleged long-term exclusivity clauses in Ticketmaster venue contracts – “Ticketmaster has threatened to sue venues that sought to terminate instead of auto-renewing” – and Live Nation’s alleged habit of extinguishing competition by scooping up rivals.

“Soon after the LN-Ticketmaster merger,” the government added, “Ticketmaster stopped permitting promoters to negotiate deals directly with Ticketmaster, instead requiring promoters to accept deals that were negotiated between the venue and Ticketmaster. This cut promoters off from ticket service fee revenue, disadvantaging them in competing for artists.”

Like with Live Nation’s own arguments, a comprehensive breakdown of the DOJ’s position would require a substantial amount of ink. (The new filing’s redactions, while not overwhelming, wouldn’t help the process.)

But it’s clear that the plaintiffs, despite the rumored decision not to pursue criminal charges against Live Nation execs, are aggressively working to move the case forward. We’ll have to wait until late next month to see where the summary judgment cards fall; a related hearing has been teed up for the morning of Friday, January 23rd.