Critics Rail Against DOJ’s Live Nation Settlement At Capitol Hill Forum

During a Capitol Hill forum Monday, critics, including a former Department of Justice antitrust attorney, slammed the settlement the DOJ reached with Live Nation.

Roger Alford, former principal deputy assistant attorney general in the DOJ’s antitrust division, testified during the forum hosted by Democrats Rep. Jamie Raskin and Sen. Richard Blumenthal that the deal was “an abuse of prosecutorial discretion.”

“If there is one instance of the abuse of prosecutorial discretion over antitrust enforcement that will harm the DOJ’s reputation and injure the average American, it is the Live Nation–Ticketmaster settlement,” Alford said.

Jerry Mickelson, who owns promoter JAM Productions out of Chicago and has testified before congressional panels in the past, said smaller promoters lose out because Live Nation’s flywheel strategy allows the company to offer higher fees, because it can generate cash from sponsorship, ticketing and other sources.

“We simply want to be able to retain and manage the relationship between musician and audience without the influence of extractive corporate power,” he said.

Tom DeGeorge, owner of Tampa’s The Crowbar, said his venue will close in July, and that smaller venues and independent operators simply want a “fair shot.”

The settlement, which was announced just days into the trial, would, if approved by Judge Arun Subramanian, would result in the opening up some amphitheaters to rival promoters, loosening of exclusivity agreements and the outright termination of an exclusivity deal with Oak View Group (Pollstar‘s parent company). It would also create a fund to pay out damages to the handful of states that joined in the settlement.

That settlement was seen as wanting by 34 other states, who proceeded with the trial, resulting in a verdict that Live Nation and Ticketmaster did, in fact, operate as an illegal monopoly. Subramanian will decide on the remedies sometime next year.

The only artist who testified Monday — The Hold Steady’s Franz Nicolay — echoed previous sentiments from NIVA executive director Stephen Parker that simply splitting up Ticketmaster and Live Nation — as attorneys-general across the political spectrum have pushed for — doesn’t go far enough.

“The monopolistic forces that control the industry equally affect the broad popular music middle class,” Nicolay said. “We hope that the remedies phase of the lawsuit results in the breakup which doesn’t just separate Ticketmaster from Live Nation, but also separates the venue and artist management businesses from their tour promotion businesses.”