Reside Nation has publicly referred to as on the US Division of Justice to settle the federal government’s antitrust lawsuit towards the corporate and its subsidiary Ticketmaster, arguing that the prospect of a court-ordered breakup is successfully useless.
In an announcement revealed at present (February 19) — the identical day the corporate reported document annual revenues of $25.2 billion — Reside Nation’s EVP of Company and Regulatory Affairs, Dan Wall, mentioned the corporate is “prepared” to succeed in a take care of the DOJ and state attorneys basic.
Wall writes: “Instances on this posture practically all the time settle, and with the prospect of structural aid off the desk, that’s what ought to occur on this case now.
“Reside Nation is able to make that occur with DOJ and any State Legal professional Basic dedicated to reasonable, common sense options to the remaining points.”
He provides: “We perceive that any settlement must be significant for our venue clients, for artists, and naturally for followers. That’s what we would like, too.”
The assertion, titled It’s Time to Transfer On, may be learn in full right here.
Wall’s assertion comes someday after US District Choose Arun Subramanian issued a ruling that narrowed the scope of the DOJ’s case.
The choose dismissed claims that Reside Nation monopolized the live performance promotion market, whereas permitting claims associated to Ticketmaster’s dominance in venue-facing ticketing and Reside Nation’s observe of tying entry to its amphitheaters to its promotion companies to proceed to trial.
Jury choice is at present scheduled to start on March 2.
Reside Nation’s argument facilities on the dismissal of the live performance promotion claims. Wall writes that this “undermines any severe argument for breaking apart Reside Nation and Ticketmaster“.
He continues: “First, it ends the narrative that live performance promotion and ticketing are ‘mutually reinforcing monopolies.’ There was by no means a lot substance to that rivalry, however the concept at the very least was that the 2 monopolies propped up each other. Now [the] DOJ has did not show there’s a live performance promotion monopoly.”
Wall additionally argues that separating Reside Nation from Ticketmaster “would not serve any remedial goal, not to mention be a legally permissible treatment”.
He writes: “The case is now about three issues: long-term unique ticketing contracts, a discrete ticketing deal Ticketmaster has with Oakview Group, and Reside Nation’s coverage of not renting its amphitheaters to rival promoters. None of these claims, nor even all three taken collectively, warrants greater than commonplace injunctive aid.”
Wall factors to latest precedent to bolster his argument, citing the DOJ’s antitrust case towards Google.
In that case, Choose Amit Mehta of the US District Courtroom for the District of Columbia rejected the DOJ’s request to pressure Google to spin off its Chrome browser in September 2025, as a substitute choosing extra focused cures round unique default agreements.
Wall writes that breakups in monopolization instances are vanishingly uncommon: “The final time it occurred was in 1980, when AT&T agreed to be damaged as much as resolve a monopolization case that was within the late levels of trial.”
He additionally notes that the DOJ itself had authorized the Reside Nation-Ticketmaster merger in 2010, and had on the time mentioned it was “certain to profit concertgoers, artists, and the trade as an entire”.
Wall’s assertion immediately targets the origins of the case underneath the Biden administration. He writes that former DOJ Antitrust Chief Jonathan Kanter “broke from ordinary DOJ observe and introduced on Day One which ‘it was time to interrupt up Reside Nation and Ticketmaster’”.
Wall continues: “He additionally advised the American public that the merger and its attendant evils have been chargeable for excessive ticket costs and costs. After all, none of this was true.”
He provides: “On the eve of trial, DOJ has no proof of that, and its argument has turn into that it doesn’t have to show increased costs.”
The DOJ, joined by 39 US states and the District of Columbia, filed the lawsuit in Could 2024, alleging monopolistic conduct throughout the stay leisure trade.
Regardless of Reside Nation’s name for a settlement, not all events could also be keen to face down.
Following yesterday’s ruling, New York Legal professional Basic Letitia James mentioned in an announcement: “Reside Nation has used its monopoly to rig the stay occasions trade to its profit, driving up prices with increased ticket costs and outrageous charges. Whatever the path that the Division of Justice takes, my workplace will proceed this case and we are going to see Reside Nation in court docket.”
Wall’s assertion arrives on the identical day that Reside Nation reported annual revenues of $25.2 billion for 2025, up 9% year-over-year, and adjusted working revenue of $2.37 billion, up 10%.
The corporate mentioned a document 159 million individuals attended Reside Nation-promoted reveals in 2025 throughout 55,000 concert events — up by 8 million on the prior yr. For the primary time, extra individuals attended Reside Nation concert events outdoors the US than inside it.
