SDNY COURTHOUSE, May 26 – The United States versus Live Nation trial began
on March 2 with jury selection, before U.S. District Court
for the Southern District of New York Judge Arun
Subramanian. Then after a week of testimony it
went on pause, and the DOJ and several states settled with
Live Nation.
Inner City Press submitted a
Freedom of Information Act requests to US DOJ on March 27,
2026.
On March 16 the trial picked back up, with
NYS' Hatch questioning AEG's Marciano followed by a
grilling cross by Live Nation's Marriott, emphasizing the
size and actions of AEG. Then the states called Live
Nation's Bob Roux, who repeatedly said he didn't remember
and couldn't confirm.
Late on March 19, Inner City Press
published TicketMonster in Court, here
On April 15, the jury found Live Nation to
be a monopolist, verdict form here.
Inner City Press immediately published "Ticketmaster Loses
the Jury: Live Nation Death Sentence?" Ebook here,
audiobook and paperback coming.
On the DOJ FOIA requests, after DOJ correctly granted expedited processing and Inner City Press voluntarily limited the scope of its request in order to get the records more quickly, on April 20 a total denial by DOJ, full copy here
Inner City Press
immediately appealed.
On April 24 a letter to
Judge Subramanian: Live Nation's briefing for a new
trial to July 2. But DOJ wants the Tunney Act process to
move forward. Letter on Patreon here
On April 28, Judge
Subramanian ordered a May 7 hearing. On May 7, he
partially granted Inner City Press' unsealing request, writing
that "the Court agrees with Inner City Press that these
are judicial documents." Inner City Press live
tweeted the hearing, and will cover the filings,
and July 30.
On May 21 the states filed
including that they are "evaluating a range of
remedies... 1. Divestiture of Ticketmaster: An order
requiring Live Nation to divest Ticketmaster, such
that it is capable of restoring competition for primary
ticketing contracts with Major Concert Venues.
Plaintiffs are evaluating the scope of assets,
contracts, personnel, and systems that would be
necessary for a standalone Ticketmaster to effectively
compete in the market for primary ticketing
services to Major Concert Venues." Later, Live Nation
filed a motion seeking to throw out the jury verdict...
On May 26 Live Nation filed
to "request that the Court not permit fact discovery to
commence until, at the earliest, the Court has ruled on
Defendants’ motion for judgment as a matter of law (ECF
Nos. 1499, 1500) and motion for a new trial (ECF Nos.
1501, 1502) The Plaintiff States intend to seek an
extraordinarily broad swath of material, including
updated transaction-level data across multiple business
units, extensive document and information requests
concerning the operational and financial feasibility of
divesting Live Nation’s amphitheaters and Ticketmaster."
March 18 extra on "war room(s)" on X for
Subscribers here
and Substack here
On March 6, Inner City
Press was in the courtroom at 8:30 am, and spoke to push
for further unsealing, including of demonstratives. See
new book, "TicketMonster: US v Live Nation 1," ebook,
audiobook and paperback here.
The case is United States of America et al v. Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. et al., 24-cv-3973 (Subramanian)
