Ticketmaster CTO Exits Company Ahead of U.S. v. Live Nation Trial

Photo Credit: Moynihan United States Courthouse (US District Court for the Southern District of New York) by Americasroof / CC by 3.0

Days out from the United States v. Live Nation trial, filings are flying without any apparent signs of a last-minute pause or settlement. Meanwhile, Ticketmaster’s CTO is abruptly exiting the company but won’t avoid sitting down for one more deposition.

The litigants themselves, plus several non-parties with interests in the case, today submitted a number of new documents. Additionally, on top of continuing to address various redaction requests, testimony-scope questions, and jury-instruction details, the court this afternoon held another pretrial conference.

In other words, as was also true earlier this week, the available evidence is pointing to an imminent trial kickoff. That’s not to say an 11th-hour resolution can’t materialize, but at least for the time being, it’s all systems go for the high-stakes legal battle.

As Live Nation execs emphasized in a since-deleted blog post and during their company’s latest earnings call, they believe the suit’s partial dismissal effectively eliminated the possibility of a court-ordered Ticketmaster spinoff. Whether that’s accurate remains to be seen, and to reiterate the obvious, different remedies are still on the table.

Regarding the biggest takeaways from recent filings and orders, Judge Arun Subramanian signed off on a motion to compel a deposition from Ticketmaster’s outgoing London-based CTO, Carlos Alvarez-Coch.

Per a recent filing from the government, Live Nation only disclosed the abrupt departure of the exec (who’d previously been deposed in July 2025) in passing on February 19th.

“Yet on February 11, for the first time, Defendants mentioned—in an aside—that they consider Mr. Alvarez unavailable for trial because he is based in London,” the DOJ wrote. “After Plaintiffs requested a meet and confer, Defendants informed Plaintiffs on February 19, also for the first time, that Mr. Alvarez is now unavailable for a different reason—his last day at Ticketmaster ‘is expected to be February 28,’ two days before trial begins.”

Judge Subramanian eliminated any deposition uncertainty here by ordering the exiting CTO to testify via video.

“Ticketmaster is compelled to produce its CTO to sit for a remote trial deposition by February 27, 2026 (his last day of work) or otherwise agree to a later date,” the judge ordered. “The deposition cannot exceed two hours.”

Separately, Live Nation and multiple parties are trading letters about the defendant’s newest push to afford Dan Wall, currently EVP for corporate and regulatory affairs, access to a pile of trial materials as its corporate representative.

In the government’s view, doing so would allow Wall to explore “Live Nation’s competitors’ highly confidential information” – and raise far-reaching competition concerns in the process.

“Live Nation’s submission makes clear that Mr. Wall now intends to use his corporate designee status as a backdoor to the very discovery record that he has repeatedly been barred from accessing during this case,” AEG vented in a letter of its own.

“Specifically, Defendants’ submission appears to request Mr. Wall’s unfettered access to potentially all documents on the parties’ exhibit lists—without any notification to third parties and at his own lawyers’ unilateral discretion as to what warrants sealing—the majority of which will never be introduced at trial,” the Live Nation rival proceeded.