March 9 (Reuters) – Live Nation Entertainment has reached a settlement with the U.S. Justice Department that allows the concert promoter to retain Ticketmaster, Politico reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter. The agreement requires the concert giant to pay roughly $200 million in damages to participating states and submit to sweeping structural […]
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Live Nation settles US antitrust case, keeps Ticketmaster, Politico reports
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March 9 (Reuters) – Live Nation Entertainment has reached a settlement with the U.S. Justice Department that allows the concert promoter to retain Ticketmaster, Politico reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The agreement requires the concert giant to pay roughly $200 million in damages to participating states and submit to sweeping structural reforms targeting its long-criticized control of ticketing, venues and artist promotion, the report added.
Shares of the California-based company jumped about 9% in premarket trading after the report.
Fans and politicians had intensified calls to examine Live Nation’s 2010 acquisition of Ticketmaster, after the company subjected Taylor Swift fans to hours-long online queues while charging high prices for tickets to her 2022 Eras tour.
The U.S. Justice Department and more than two dozen states sued to break up Live Nation in May 2024, calling for a sale of Ticketmaster and alleging the companies illegally inflated concert ticket prices and harmed artists.
The trial in the case began last week after a judge in February rejected Live Nation’s bid to dismiss the lawsuit.
Under the settlement, Ticketmaster will be required to open parts of its technology platform to competing ticketing companies, allowing third-party sellers such as SeatGeek and Eventbrite to list tickets directly through its system, the report said.
The agreement caps Live Nation’s long-term exclusivity contracts, historically used to lock venues into its system, at four years, and venues will be permitted to allocate a portion of their ticket inventory to rival platforms, the Politico report added.
Live Nation has earlier called the allegations baseless and said the outcome of the trial would do nothing to lower ticket prices for fans.
Live Nation, Ticketmaster and the DOJ did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
(Reporting by Kritika Lamba and Angela Christy in Bengaluru; Editing by Sumana Nandy, Mrigank Dhaniwala and Krishna Chandra Eluri)