Live Nation Loses Bid To Relocate Antitrust Suit To DC

The antitrust suit seeking to break up Live Nation and Ticketmaster will remain in New York, a federal judge ruled Oct. 3.

U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian said the suit — whose plantiffs include the United States, 39 individual states and the District of Columbia — will stay in his Southern District of New York court. Live Nation had asked for it to be tried in the District of Columbia.

Live Nation’s argument was based on the requirements of the 2010 consent decree allowing the LN-Ticketmaster merger, which included a provision that any matters tried under the agreement would fall under the DC’s court’s jurisdiction.

In his motion denying the move, Subramanian agreed with the DOJ and the states that the present case is beyond the scope of the consent decree, which as a legal matter was an agreement that in exchange for certain concessions by Live Nation and Ticketmaster — licensing ticket software, divesting from certain ticketing companies and agreeing not to engage in retaliatory behavior — the government would drop its Clayton Act charges. As Subrmanian notes, while the decree had the effect of allowing the merger, it didn’t preclude any antitrust actions for all time.

“This case doesn’t run up against the decree because the decree doesn’t reach beyond the specific pre-merger challenge that it helped resolve,” the judge wrote. “Defendants remain liable for violating the laws at issue here, and plaintiffs don’t have to ‘modify’ the decree to seek enforcement of those laws.”

A case can also be moved for reasons of convenience; Live Nation conceded in its arguments that New York and Washington were “equally convenient” for parties to the suit and witnesses.

The antitrust action, filed in May and amended in August, attacks Live Nation’s “flywheel” strategy as reinforcing its market position and driving out competitors.

Specifically, the suit alleges a variety of tactics the DOJ says are used to “eliminate competition and monopolize markets.” Among them, Live Nation’s relationship with Oak View Group (Pollstar‘s parent company), which the Justice Department says “avoided bidding against Live Nation for artist talent and influenced venues to sign exclusive agreements with Ticketmaster.”

The suit also claims Live Nation used its influence to stymie TEG’s attempts to expand its promotion business into the United States. According to the suit, Live Nation attempted to prevent TEG from using StubHub as a ticketer for a concert at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum by refusing to honor any seats sold through StubHub. The amended complaint says that Live Nation encouraged private-equity firm Silver Lake — an investor in, among other things, OVG — to eliminate its interest in TEG and that the firm has asked, via OVG executives, if Live Nation would be interested in acquiring the promoter.

The DOJ alleges Live Nation threatens — usually implicitly, though, the suit claims, sometimes more directly — venues that if they don’t use Ticketmaster, they will not get the promoter’s top tours. And, the suit claims, it works the other way: if an artist refuses to use Live Nation as a promoter, they can expect to be denied a spot at a Live Nation- owned venue.

Under the initial case management order, the case could go to trial in March 2026.