New York
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Live Nation and Ticketmaster have reached a settlement with federal authorities over its practices that accused the ticket large of monopolizing the reside occasions music business, in line with a supply acquainted with the matter.
No particulars of the settlement had been initially introduced and a choose nonetheless must approve it. A trial started final week in New York.
Monday’s announcement brings an finish to a two-year legal battle stemming from a lawsuit that was filed in opposition to the corporate in the course of the Biden administration in addition to greater than 30 state and district attorneys common.
Prosecutors accused Live Nation of monopolizing the ticketing and reside occasions business by chopping unique offers with the nation’s largest venues, making certain that every one their future occasions had been ticketed via the corporate’s platform.
The business got here underneath intense scrutiny in 2022 after glitches at Ticketmaster blocked hundreds of thousands from buying tickets for Taylor Swift’s tour. The debacle revealed how a scarcity of competitors has led to harms starting from poor customer support to complicated pricing to costly ticketing fees to restrictions on ticket resales — amounting to what many shoppers complain of as loss of life by a thousand cuts.
The Justice Department additionally wished the corporate to separate up Live Nation and Ticketmaster, which merged in 2010.
However, Politico, which first reported the information, stated the corporate gained’t be cut up up and should pay hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in damages.
Last 12 months, Live Nation named Richard Grenell, who’s one in every of President Donald Trump’s closest advisers to its board of administrators. Antitrust advocates instantly related that his appointment to Live Nation’s efforts to keep away from the corporate from being cut up up.
Live Nation and the DOJ didn’t instantly reply to NCS’s request for remark.
This is a breaking story and shall be up to date.