DOJ Faces Live Nation Settlement Criticism Amid States’ Lawsuit

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With over 30 state attorneys general continuing to battle Live Nation at trial, antitrust officials are still facing scrutiny over their settlement – including allegations of “improper lobbying.”

Those allegations are the latest example of post-settlement turbulence for Live Nation and the DOJ. As we previously covered, the states’ ongoing trial is certainly factoring into the equation; more on this in a moment.

So are years and years of criticism of Live Nation and its Ticketmaster subsidiary, which, put mildly, aren’t customers’ favorite companies. In general, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle haven’t hesitated to call out the promoter, and evidence suggests that, at a minimum, their pushback hasn’t cost them votes.

At the intersection of all these points, the DOJ’s acting antitrust head, Omeed Assefi, during an event yesterday reportedly defended the settlement and rejected the aforementioned improper-lobbying claims.

Per Semafor, Assefi also expressed an openness to engaging in merger-review discussions – albeit while emphasizing that the talks don’t “entitle you to anything.” Additionally, the official reiterated that he’d told his staff they “‘were able to get more relief than anyone in history ever has against Live Nation.’”

(We broke down the settlement’s specifics – including noteworthy concessions like a ticketing-fee cap, the end of Live Nation’s Oak View Group ticketing agreements, and more – in detail.)

And FTC chairman Andrew Ferguson, speaking alongside Assefi, refuted the allegation that lobbyists are compromising his own agency’s merger-review efforts, according to the same outlet.

Meanwhile, on the heels of critical settlement comments from Kid Rock and others, the National Consumers League (NCL) and Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) on Wednesday weighed in with a joint release.

Coinciding with the conclusion of the litigating states’ arguments, said release took aim at Live Nation/Ticketmaster and the DOJ settlement itself.

Consumers “deserve nothing less than a decisive outcome that breaks up this monopoly and restores real competition to the marketplace,” relayed NCL VP of public policy, telecommunications, and fraud John Breyault. And Senator Booker lambasted the settlement as “a slap in the face to American concertgoers who are increasingly being priced out of seeing their favorite artists.”

As highlighted, years-old factors, chief among them a solid foundation of customer dissatisfaction, are playing a part in the Live Nation legal saga. But it seems safe to say that newly public comments and documents aren’t helping the promoter.

That definitely includes a Live Nation higher-up’s “robbing customers blind” remark and, more recently, quotes from a number of just-unveiled trial exhibits. Unfortunately, the public versions thereof were hit hard by redactions.

Nevertheless, we now know for a fact that Live Nation brass read fans’ complaints on social media – screenshots of which made their way into a “critical incident” email chain containing urgent discussions about 2020 Tennessee Titans ticketing issues.

Similarly, certain execs weren’t (and possibly aren’t) thrilled with Ticketmaster’s tech, the documents show. Ex-CTO Carlos Alvarez, who departed Live Nation soon before the trial kickoff, responded to the Titans’ on-sale hurdles by lamenting Ticketmaster’s “fundamental issues specifically with tribal knowledge and troubleshooting principles that I can see [are] clearly lacking.”

And in a 2023 internal survey designed to drive “a problem identification and needs alignment discussion,” 90% of interviewees – meaning Live Nation employees including Alvarez – said they were “not satisfied with delivery against the strategic plan,” per a different exhibit.

Of course, this could reflect a potential disconnect between internal opinions and Live Nation/Ticketmaster’s public-facing comments.

On the opposite side of the courtroom confrontation, Live Nation’s exhibits rather unsurprisingly feature discussions of ticketing rivals’ own operational woes, these rivals’ exclusive ticketing agreements, and tour manager praise for Ticketmaster’s capabilities.