The Department of Justice‘s antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation may be coming to a somewhat anticlimactic end less than a week after going to trial, as the DOJ has reportedly reached a settlement with the live music giant that stops short of breaking up the company from Ticketmaster.
The case had already been partly neutered after U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian dismissed several monopoly claims in February, including the government’s argument that Live Nation’s control over the industry was unfairly driving up ticket prices and causing significant harm to both artists and consumers. That decision limited the trial, which began last week, to two specific issues: whether Live Nation unfairly forced artists performing at amphitheaters owned by the company to use its promotion services—a tactic called “amphitheater tying”—and whether the company had an unfair monopolization of ticketing at major concert venues. The settlement agreement addresses both of these issues.
Under the agreement, as reported by The Guardian, Live Nation will divest more than ten amphitheaters, reducing the possibility of amphitheater tying by allowing those venues to operate independently. According to the DOJ, the company currently controls approximately 78 percent of major amphitheaters across the country.
Live Nation will also attempt to lessen its domination of the ticketing market by letting third-party sellers such as SeatGeek and Eventbrite list tickets directly through Ticketmaster’s technology. The settlement further imposes new limits on the long-term exclusivity contracts that have kept venues locked into using Ticketmaster, restricting those agreements to four-year terms and allowing venues to sell a portion of their tickets on competing platforms. Ticketmaster has also agreed to cap service fees at its amphitheaters to 15 percent of the ticket price.
“This will revolutionize the ticketing marketplace,” said one of the anonymous sources who spoke to Politico. “These are innovative technological solutions to a very difficult problem with prying open the marketplace.”
Live Nation has also reportedly agreed to pay roughly $200 million in damages to the 40 states participating in the lawsuit, though some states are expected to continue pursuing their own claims without the DOJ.
In a statement reacting to news of the settlement, New York Attorney General Letitia James said, “My attorney general colleagues and I have a strong case against Live Nation, and we will continue our lawsuit to protect consumers and restore fair competition to the live entertainment industry.” She went on to add, “We will keep fighting this case without the federal government so that we can secure justice for all those harmed by Live Nation’s monopoly.”
Other critics say settling the lawsuit signals weakness on the part of the DOJ. “You really couldn’t send a clearer message that antitrust is dead at the federal level than settling this particular case,” John Newman, a former senior antitrust official who served at both the DOJ and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), told NBC.
The settlement still needs to be finalized. The DOJ and Live Nation have so far only signed a non-binding term sheet. Whether the full agreement receives court approval remains to be seen.