Concert promoter Live Nation owns the Ticketmaster platform as well as live music venues across North America.Dado Ruvic/Reuters
Goliath met colossus in a Manhattan federal courtroom on Monday when the Live Nation Entertainment antitrust trial began. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) contends concert promoter Live Nation, which owns Ticketmaster and a considerable roster of venues across North America, has an unfair stranglehold on aspects of the live music industry.
The lawsuit is as blockbuster a legal proceeding involving the music business since the Recording Industry Association of America sued the first file-sharing platform Napster for copyright infringement in 1999.
Here’s how it breaks down.
The allegations
On May 23, 2024, the DOJ, with 30 state and district attorneys-general, filed a civil antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation Entertainment Inc. and its wholly owned subsidiary, Ticketmaster LLC (Live Nation-Ticketmaster) for monopolization and other unlawful conduct that thwart competition in markets across the live entertainment industry.
“We allege that Live Nation relies on unlawful, anticompetitive conduct to exercise its monopolistic control over the live events industry in the United States at the cost of fans, artists, smaller promoters, and venue operators,” said then-attorney-general Merrick B. Garland.
“The result is that fans pay more in fees, artists have fewer opportunities to play concerts, smaller promoters get squeezed out, and venues have fewer real choices for ticketing services. It is time to break up Live Nation-Ticketmaster.”
Live Nation owns, operates or holds controlling interest in an extensive network of amphitheatres, theatres, clubs and festivals. Among them: Gorge Amphitheatre, George, Wash.; Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View, Calif.; Gramercy Theatre, New York; Emo’s Austin, Austin, Tex.; Sweden Rock Festival, Solvesborg, Sweden.
The DOJ alleges Live Nation leverages its portfolio of venues to force artists to use its concert promotion services. The other part of the lawsuit deals with Live Nation’s ownership of Ticketmaster. It is alleged Live Nation blocks venues from using multiple ticketers, who would compete by offering the best mix of prices, fees, quality and innovation to fans.
The defence
About the Ticketmaster strongarming allegation, Live Nation wrote in court documents in 2025 that venues “tend to prefer exclusive ticketing contracts.”
The complaints over Ticketmaster practices stretch back years before the ticketing service and Live Nation merged in 2010. Famously, rock group Pearl Jam filed an antitrust complaint against Ticketmaster in 1994, which triggered a federal investigation into the company’s alleged monopoly. Though the case was unsuccessful, it was a public-relations nightmare for the ticketing giants.
As for the allegation of Live Nation’s concert promotion monopoly, the company argued in court papers that the government had presented “barely a molehill” of evidence demonstrating anticompetitive practices.
Kid Rock
Robert Ritchie, also known as rap-rocker Kid Rock, testified in January in front of a Senate commerce subcommittee on rising ticket prices and fees. The Born Free singer testified that “It’s no secret this industry is full of greedy snakes and scoundrels. Too many suits lining their pockets off talent they never had and fans they mislead.”
Though the musician may be called to testify at this trial, the high-profile witnesses will more likely be drawn from the industry side of the music business.
Among those likely to take the stand are Live Nation Entertainment chief executive officer and president Michael Rapino (a native of Thunder Bay), as well a representative from Anschutz Entertainment Group, the world’s second-largest concert promoter, after Live Nation. Irving Azoff, the industry legend who oversaw Ticketmaster when the company merged with Live Nation in 2010, also may be required to swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
In Canada
Live Nation Canada, a division of the Beverly Hills, Calif.-based Live Nation Entertainment, has been extremely busy in acquiring ownership or booking control of music venues in this country.
Last summer, it opened the temporary, 50,000-capacity, open-air Rogers Stadium in Toronto’s Downsview area. Among other venues either owned or operated by Live Nation Canada are the Opera House, RBC Amphitheatre, History and Danforth Music Hall in Toronto; Kee to Bala, Bala, Ont.; Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver; and the soon-to-open History Ottawa.