Business

/

ArcaMax

Live Nation loses bid to toss DOJ antitrust case

Josh Sisco, Leah Nylen and Chris Dolmetsch, Bloomberg News on

Published in Business News

A federal judge in New York said he denied Live Nation Entertainment Inc.’s attempt to throw out the Justice Department’s antitrust case seeking to break off Ticketmaster Entertainment Inc. after the companies merged more than 15 years ago.

U.S. District Judge Arun Subramaian told lawyers for the government and company in a hearing Thursday that he plans to move forward with the trial. Subramaian didn’t disclose the reasoning behind his decision, but said his order will be made public later Thursday or Friday.

“The pending motion to dismiss will be denied,” Subramaian said at the start of the hearing, according to a transcript. The hearing was called to discuss the DOJ’s issues with the company not turning over documents according to schedule.

A spokesperson for DOJ declined to comment. Live Nation didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Justice Department and some 30 states sued Live Nation last year, alleging it has illegally monopolized the live events industry. Live Nation controls more than 265 concert venues in North America and manages more than 400 musical artists, according to last year’s lawsuit, which said that overall the company controls at least 80% of major venues’ ticketing for concerts.

 

The company has denied wrongdoing and asked the judge to throw out the lawsuit on the grounds that it has no legal obligation to allow other companies to use concert venues it owns. Motions to dismiss like the one by Live Nation are common in antitrust cases, though they rarely succeed in suits brought by the government.

The suit is among five major monopolization cases being pursued by the Justice Department’s antitrust unit, including twin cases against Alphabet Inc.’s Google, a lawsuit filed last year against Apple Inc. and another against Visa Inc.

The case is U.S. v. Live Nation Entertainment Inc., 24-cv-03973, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).


©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

 

Comments

blog comments powered by Disqus