SDNY COURTHOUSE, June 5 – 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, and also to states including Washington State (see
below).
DOJ granted expedited
processing, then asked Inner City Press to narrow its
request, which it did.
But just after the jury verdict that
Live Nation is a monopolist, DOJ denied the FOIA request
in full. Inner City Press immediately appeal - and that
was denied.
On May 27, Inner City Press filed a FOIA
lawsuit in SDNY, complaint on CourtListener here.
While awaiting action, Washington
State among others has provided documents under state open
records laws.
Public records obtained by Inner City Press
through a Washington State public records request
(PRR-2026-0279) reveal a stream of citizen letters to the
Washington Attorney General demanding the state reject the
federal deal and press for real accountability. One
Vashon Island resident, Richard Jones, wrote to AG Brown
on March 10, 2026, calling the settlement "an obnoxious
sweetheart deal with the oligarchy-happy Pam Bondi and
others." Jones noted that the fine imposed on Live Nation
"equals roughly four days of gross income" for the company
and urged the AG to "work with any other like-minded AGs
to torpedo this settlement and demand some real
accountability."
The same day, Euge Sosa Barboza — an
employee of Sony Music Publishing — wrote directly to the
Washington AG from a Sony company email address. "I want
to reach out with my support for the continuing Live
Nation lawsuit," she wrote. "Their illegal behavior has
only begun to be exposed, and they need to be held
accountable. The DOJ's settlement was weak, and I question
what happened behind the scenes to cause it." Sosa Barboza
added: "Both as a consumer and a member of the music
industry, I stand against the Live Nation monopoly."
The records show that Washington's AG office was already
engaged well before the settlement. In September 2024, an
Assistant Attorney General in the Antitrust Division
responded to a citizen inquiry by confirming that "our
office joined the Department of Justice and dozens of
other states in filing a lawsuit against Live Nation on
May 23, 2024."
The response also cited Washington's prior
2020 Live Nation Consent Decree — an earlier enforcement
action that, critics noted, Live Nation violated in the
years that followed. The settlement — announced
after trial began — has drawn criticism from state AGs and
consumer advocates who argued the structural remedies fell
short of the breakup the original complaint
demanded. Inner City Press, which covered every day
of the Live Nation antitrust trial from the SDNY
courthouse, obtained these Washington State records as
part of its ongoing coverage of the case and the
state-level enforcement records surrounding it.
Watch this site.
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)
