The US Justice Department told a federal judge that Live Nation Entertainment Inc. should be broken up because the company maintains a stranglehold over the live events industry, in part by freezing out venues that don’t use its Ticketmaster unit.
Venues that dumped Ticketmaster in favor of another ticket seller ended up losing about five concerts a year promoted by Live Nation, which meant forfeiting a combined total of about $1.5 million in revenue, or more than $300,000 per event, according to the government, which sued the company in 2024.
New York’s Barclays Center was among the venues that “lost concerts as a result of switching from Ticketmaster to a rival ticketer,” Bonny Sweeney, a Justice Department lawyer, said Friday at a court hearing in Manhattan. She added that many venues claim Ticketmaster’s services are inferior to those offered by rivals.
Live Nation, which merged with Ticketmaster in 2010, has denied claims that it operates an illegal monopoly. It has asked US District Judge Arun Subramanian to toss the government’s lawsuit or decide the case without the need for a trial, which has been scheduled for March 2.
After hearing arguments from both sides Friday, the judge didn’t say when he’d rule on the company’s request.
Live Nation controls more than 265 concert venues in North America and manages more than 400 musical artists, according to the antitrust lawsuit filed by the Justice Department and some 30 states. Live Nation also controls about 87% of the concert ticketing market through its Ticketmaster subsidiary and more than 65% of the concert promotion market, Sweeney told the judge on Friday.
Andrew Gass, a lawyer for Live Nation, said the government investigated the company for years but only found eight alleged instances over 15 years where Live Nation threatened it would withhold concerts if a venue switched ticketing services. The government also failed to show evidence of harm created by the company’s policy requiring artists to use Live Nation’s promotion services at venues it owns, he said.
The government “needs some actual evidence these customers were made worse off,” Gass said.
The Justice Department argued that artists earned less from shows at Live Nation-owned amphitheaters.
The company instructed its employees not to increase artist guarantees — the amount of money it agrees to pay even if a concert is canceled — since they have to use Live Nation’s venues, government lawyer Lorraine Van Kirk said. Live Nation amphitheaters also have higher venue and service fees than similarly sized venues, often forcing artists to reduce their ticket prices to avoid having to charge fans more, she said.
The case is US v. Live Nation, 24-cv-3973, US District Court, Southern District of New York .
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