Live Nation is asking a judge to postpone its looming federal monopoly trial so that it can file an immediate appeal, arguing that last week’s ruling contained legal errors that could “dramatically change” the case.
Judge Arun Subramanian sent the case to trial last week, setting the stage for a jury trial next month in the Department of Justice’s sweeping antitrust lawsuit, which claims that Live Nation and Ticketmaster have abused their dominance over the live music industry.
But in a court filing on Sunday, Live Nation says it wants to launch a so-called interlocutory appeal – meaning it wants to challenge that ruling before the case is over. And it says the scheduled trial must be halted until that appeal has been decided.
“The court should not empanel a jury to try a complex, month-long case when that trial (at least as currently envisioned) may well prove wholly unnecessary,” Live Nation’s lawyers write, adding that such a pause would “avoid wasting the resources of the parties, this court, and jury members on a trial of claims that may well be deemed legally deficient on appeal.”
A jury trial is currently scheduled to begin on March 2. DOJ did not immediately return a request for comment on Live Nation’s move to pause the case.
The DOJ and dozens of states filed the case in 2024, with an aim to break up Live Nation and Ticketmaster over accusations that they form an illegal monopoly over the live music industry. The feds alleged Live Nation runs an illegal “flywheel” — reaping revenue from ticket buyers, using that money to sign artists, then leveraging that repertoire to lock venues into exclusive ticketing contracts that yield ever more revenue.
Related
In October, after more than 15 months of discovery, Live Nation moved for a so-called summary judgment ruling, arguing there was “barely a molehill” of evidence that it had done anything monopolistic. The DOJ disagreed, arguing it had uncovered numerous examples of the company abusing its market power.
In his ruling last week, Subramanian said the case could proceed to trial on several key accusations, including that Live Nation abused its vast portfolio of amphitheaters to force artists to use its promotion services: “A reasonable jury could certainly find that artists were coerced into going with Live Nation as their promoter to get into its amphitheaters,” the judge wrote.
Though he allowed the case to move ahead, the judge also threw out some other key monopoly claims focused on concert booking and the fan experience. And Live Nation quickly praised those elements of the ruling, arguing they undermined “any serious argument for breaking up Live Nation and Ticketmaster.”
In a blog post titled “It’s Time to Move On,” Live Nation head of corporate and regulatory affairs Dan Wall urged the DOJ to respond to the ruling by reaching a “realistic, common-sense” settlement rather than take the case to trial. But by Friday, that post had been removed from Live Nation’s website.
The DOJ and the states will have a chance to file their own court papers in the coming days responding to Live Nation’s request for an immediate appeal and postponement of the trial.
