SDNY COURTHOUSE, Oct 19 – 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.
It has been deemed related to the Just Subramanian trial
case, and DOJ Antitrust Division filed a notice of
appearance, and a boilerplate answer. Motions are due in
December.
Meanwhile on October 15 New Jersey
belatedly replied.
Inner City Press filed an OPRA request on
March 30, 2026 with the New Jersey Attorney General’s
office, seeking records on its assessment of the Live
Nation / Ticketmaster settlement and trial in United
States v. Live Nation, 24-cv-3973 (S.D.N.Y.)...
On October 16, 200 days later, and ten
times the seven business days the law allows, the office
closed the request. It released 116 pages of
redacted consumer complaints from its Office of
Constituent Services and told Inner City Press to resubmit
its complaint requests to the Division of Consumer
Affairs. It denied the rest as “improper and overbroadâ€
and as privileged. It identified no withheld record, and
it did not say whether it has any records on its
inquiries, subpoenas or communications. Inner City
Press has emailed a challenge to the denial to New
Jersey’s Government Records Council, arguing that the
200-day delay was itself a violation and that the OAG must
say what it is withholding and why. This is a state that
is part of the Live Nation case, and its public is
entitled to know what it thinks of the partial settlement.
On October 19, this from Frank F.
Caruso Government Records Council Executive
Director:
"Government Records Council [DCA]
Attachments 6:19 PM (56 minutes ago) to Matthew, OAG
Good evening, Thank you for
contacting the NJ Government Records Council ("GRC") via
e-mail, which expresses your intent to file a Denial of
Access Complaint based on your belief that an OPRA request
response was unlawful. The GRC notes that to initiate the
Denial of Access Complaint process, you will need to
submit a completed Denial of Access Complaint form and
include all relevant attachments required thereby.
N.J.A.C. 5:105-2.3(c). Note that
the Denial of Access Complaint form is located at
https://www.state.nj.us/grc/register/. Depending on the
browser you use, instructions are included on the Denial
of Access Complaint page once you’ve clicked on the link
as follows: In Microsoft® Edge and
Internet Explorer, you will be prompted to "Open" or
"Save" the file. After saving to your computer, ensure
that you are opening the file with your external .PDF
viewer by either setting it as the default viewer or
right-clicking on the file and hovering over "Open With"
in that menu. Your external .PDF viewer should be a
clickable option in the expanded
menu. In Google® Chrome, the
complaint form will appear as a file in the lower
left-hand corner of the browser. Using the up-facing
arrow, select one of the options allowing you to access
your external .PDF program.
[https://www.state.nj.us/grc/register/.]
The important part is to ensure that you are accessing the
file saved to your desktop using the computer’s onboard
.pdf viewer (such as Adobe Reader) and not one that is
browser-based (such as Edge). The
GRC is also providing a non-writable .pdf version of that
form, which is linked in the above page, for your review
and completion, if more
convenient. Further, should a
complaint be more than 50 pages, current policy requires
individuals to file same in hardcopy via U.S. mail.
N.J.A.C. 5:105-2.3(c). Once the GRC has received the
completed form and the required attached documents, it
will proceed accordingly."
Translations: New Jersey makes a
mockery of FOIA, we don't want to hear any appeals. Note:
if you have to explain your PDF form is such detail, you
should not require it. NJ FOIA is joke.
Oregon among others has provided some documents while withholding others (and demanding absurd amounts of money) -
Public records obtained by Inner City Press
from the Oregon Department of Justice under a public
records request reveal a stream of consumer complaints
about Ticketmaster dating to the height of the COVID
pandemic — complaints of refunds promised and never paid,
tickets impossible to download, and in one case, tickets
stolen from a consumer while she was hospitalized, with
Ticketmaster doing nothing about it. The complaints, filed
with Oregon AG Ellen Rosenblum's Consumer Protection
Division, span 2020 through 2022.
One Oregon consumer had a $704.25 refund
approved by Ticketmaster on May 13, 2020 — but by August
17, 2020, Ticketmaster's automated system was telling her
the "refund window has passed" and providing no way to
reach a human being. A Portland-area consumer bought
tickets to a concert, received several Ticketmaster
confirmation emails, but could never find the actual
tickets on her account. Ticketmaster, she told the AG, had
no help line and its support email provided no remedy. She
was charged and received nothing. A third Oregon consumer
bought tickets for a Death Cab for Cutie concert in Bend,
Oregon, scheduled for September 6, 2021. The day of the
event, the concert was cancelled. Ticketmaster sent an
email saying a refund was coming. Whether it arrived is
not reflected in the AG records. Nancy Pierce of Portland,
over 65 years old, could not use mobile-only tickets
Ticketmaster issued for a July 2022 transaction — she
asked for printable or mailed tickets instead, was
refused, then asked for a refund of her $716.90. Refused
again. "THEY REFUSED TO REFUND!!! I am due a refund for
unusable tickets!!!!! They are a scam!" she wrote to the
AG.
And perhaps most striking: one Oregon
consumer went into the hospital in July of an unstated
year, received a Ticketmaster email while hospitalized
saying her tickets were available to claim — and someone
else claimed them without her consent. Ticketmaster's
response was to do nothing. Oregon joined the federal
antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation and Ticketmaster in
2024. It had years of these complaints already on file.
The AG's FOIA office initially demanded $32,520 for 81,392
emails in response to Inner City Press's broader records
request — a fee dispute Inner City Press has challenged
and appealed. What the 81,392 emails contain, and whether
they show a pattern of exactly the kind of conduct
described in these eight individual complaint files,
remains the subject of that ongoing dispute
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)
