Lawmakers, Witnesses Dissect ‘Corrupt’ Live Nation Settlement at Hearing, Press for Breakup

California AG Rob Bonta said state plaintiffs will seek structural remedies after a jury found Live Nation/Ticketmaster liable, while lawmakers and witnesses accused DOJ of abandoning the case through a politically influenced settlement.

Lawmakers, state enforcers, artists, promoters and independent venue operators used a congressional forum Monday to argue that the recent antitrust verdict against Live Nation and Ticketmaster should lead to structural changes across the live entertainment industry, not another conduct decree or monetary settlement that the company can absorb as a cost of doing business.

The forum, convened by Rep. Jamie Raskin and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, focused heavily on the Trump administration’s settlement of the federal government’s claims against Live Nation/Ticketmaster during trial. But the central ticketing takeaway was broader: speakers repeatedly urged the court to consider a breakup of Live Nation and Ticketmaster, while also looking beyond ticketing to the company’s control over concert promotion, venues, artist management, tour routing and related businesses.

Bonta Says States Will Seek Structural Remedies

California Attorney General Rob Bonta, whose office helped continue the case after the Department of Justice settled its claims, said the state plaintiffs will ask the court for structural remedies in the next phase of the case.

“Behavioral remedies have proven inadequate,” Bonta said during questioning. “It’s time for structural remedies.”

Bonta said those remedies could include “a divestiture of Ticketmaster and a full breakup of the two companies,” or even “a potential separation of the venue and artist management components of the industry.”

The remarks came after a jury found Live Nation/Ticketmaster liable under the Sherman Act in a case brought by a bipartisan coalition of state attorneys general. Raskin said the jury’s 11-page verdict form listed 13 separate antitrust violations and found competitive harm affecting state and district plaintiffs. Bonta said the jury was presented with 33 questions and found against Live Nation/Ticketmaster on every one.

The case now moves to a remedies phase before the judge. Bonta said the states expect to submit their remedy requests by the end of the month, with some final resolution possible later this fall. The court will also review DOJ’s proposed settlement under the Tunney Act, which requires judicial review of certain antitrust settlements to determine whether they are in the public interest.

Lawmakers Blast DOJ Settlement as ‘Sweetheart Deal’

That review is likely to become a major point of contention. Lawmakers and witnesses repeatedly described DOJ’s settlement as a “slap on the wrist,” a “sweetheart deal,” and, in the words of some speakers, part of a broader pattern of political influence over antitrust enforcement.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer opened the forum by calling the verdict against Live Nation and Ticketmaster “a victory for concertgoers, for musicians, independent venues,” and “a devastating defeat for the illegal monopoly” he said had driven up prices.

“With his sweetheart settlement for Ticketmaster, Donald Trump took the side of an illegal monopoly whose employees bragged about, quote, ‘robbing fans blind,’” Schumer said.

“Another slap on the wrist isn’t going to be enough,” he added. “We need to break up the monopoly.”

Raskin framed the case as the culmination of decades of warnings about Ticketmaster’s dominance, beginning with Pearl Jam’s 1994 testimony before Congress and continuing through the 2010 merger between Live Nation and Ticketmaster. Raskin said that merger combined the country’s dominant concert promoter with its dominant ticketing company, giving one corporation the power “not simply to compete in the live entertainment industry, but to control it.”

Raskin argued that structural remedies should be on the table because Live Nation/Ticketmaster’s structure itself produces anticompetitive behavior.

“If the structure of Live Nation Ticketmaster virtually guarantees anti-competitive conduct, then structural remedies must obviously be on the table, including divestiture, including breakup,” Raskin said. “The remedy must address the scope and the magnitude of the violation.”

Blumenthal echoed that point, saying Live Nation/Ticketmaster’s power was the result of a merger many lawmakers and industry participants opposed at the time.

“They didn’t get there by working harder and building from the ground up,” Blumenthal said. “They did a merger that many of us opposed, and we’ve urged for years that it be broken up.”

State AGs Say They Continued Case After DOJ ‘Went Dark’

Bonta used his testimony to argue that the states continued the case because the DOJ settlement failed to meaningfully protect consumers, artists, workers or venues. He said Live Nation/Ticketmaster overcharged fans, delivered “a frankly terrible ticketing experience,” locked venues into restrictive long-term exclusive agreements, threatened to block venues from tours and artists, and leveraged its venue network to force artists to use Live Nation as promoter.

He also cited trial evidence, including internal Slack messages in which employees mocked customers as “so stupid” and said the company was “robbing them blind, baby.” Bonta also pointed to a recorded phone call in which Live Nation’s CEO allegedly threatened to steer shows away from Barclays Center in Brooklyn if the venue worked with SeatGeek, a threat Bonta said the company later carried out.

“Our coalition of blue and red states refused to lose steam without the feds on board,” Bonta said. “We stayed in the fight, we made our case, and secured a historic and resounding victory on all of our claims.”

During questioning from Rep. Pramila Jayapal, Bonta described DOJ’s withdrawal from the case as a breakdown in the state-federal enforcement partnership. He said the federal government “went dark” during trial, stopped communicating with the state plaintiffs, then emerged with a settlement the states viewed as inadequate.

“They burned all the trust,” Bonta said. “They bailed. They left us hanging, and we’re a team and they left their teammates.”

Former DOJ Official Alleges Political Influence

Roger Alford, a Notre Dame law professor and former senior official in the Trump DOJ’s Antitrust Division, supplied the forum’s sharpest criticism of the federal settlement process. Alford said he was speaking “on behalf of traditional Republicans who care deeply about the rule of law and the vigorous enforcement of antitrust laws to protect the average American.”

Alford said DOJ “abused its prosecutorial discretion” by reaching a settlement he predicted would not be found to be in the public interest. He argued that politically connected lobbyists and allies had gained an unprecedented level of influence over antitrust enforcement decisions.

“The rule of law quickly becomes the rule of lobbyists,” Alford said.

Jayapal pressed Alford on reports that Live Nation donated to Trump’s inaugural committee, added Ric Grenell to its board, hired Mike Davis and Kellyanne Conway to lobby on the company’s behalf, and that Trump urged aides to settle the case. Alford said he was aware of those reports and, when asked whether he believed undue political influence resulted in the settlement rather than the merits of the case, answered: “Yes, I think the jury spoke to the merits of the case.”

Alford also said the settlement underscores the need for stronger judicial review of antitrust settlements. He endorsed legislation from Klobuchar and Raskin to strengthen the Tunney Act, saying the existing law “has not proven to be effective to address settlements that are not in the public interest.”

Independent Promoter Says Live Nation ‘Suffocated’ Competition

The forum’s industry witnesses pushed the remedy discussion well beyond a simple Ticketmaster-Live Nation split.

Jerry Mickelson, president and CEO of Chicago-based independent promoter Jam Productions, said he has watched Live Nation and Ticketmaster “systematically consolidate and weaponize their market power” to create a “rigged ecosystem” where meaningful competition is “deliberately suffocated.”

Mickelson said Jam produced approximately 130 arena concerts in 1996, but only four in 2025, a 97% decline he attributed to Live Nation’s control over promotion, ticketing, tours and venues.

“What happened to Jam Productions was not the result of a free and competitive marketplace,” Mickelson said. “It was the predictable outcome of unchecked abusive market control.”

Mickelson said DOJ made a “catastrophic mistake” in 2010 when it approved the Live Nation/Ticketmaster merger through a consent decree instead of blocking it. He argued that behavioral remedies cannot work when the dominant company’s leverage is applied behind closed doors against venues, artists, managers and competitors.

“Competition cannot truly exist while one corporation controls the pipelines of the live entertainment industry from the artists to the fans,” Mickelson said.

Mickelson urged structural separation not only of Live Nation and Ticketmaster, but also divestiture of Live Nation-controlled venues, festival properties, artist management companies, merchandise businesses and other segments that allow the company to leverage power in one market to suppress competition in another.

Venue Owner Calls for Tour Cap as Crowbar Prepares to Close

Tom DeGeorge, owner of Tampa’s Crowbar, gave the forum its clearest independent-venue account. DeGeorge said his 300-capacity venue has spent years battling the pressures faced by independent rooms, including bots, inflation, local development fights and competition from corporate giants.

He described a 2022 Jake Wesley Rogers show that initially came through AEG, only for Live Nation to later obtain the tour rights. DeGeorge said the show stayed at Crowbar only because the artist wanted to keep the kickoff date there, but he had to match a Live Nation offer that was roughly twice what he would have paid to book the show independently.

“Live Nation can overbid, lose money on shows, and absorb it all because they make billions through Ticketmaster and every other part of this industry that they have their hands in,” DeGeorge said. “When it’s your own room, every show has to make financial sense. There is no level playing field with the monopoly.”

DeGeorge said Crowbar will close July 31 after 20 years. Last month, he said, Live Nation announced plans for a 4,300-capacity venue in the same neighborhood.

“That is how this happens, not with a knockout punch, but slowly, show by show, year by year,” DeGeorge said.

He proposed a “50% tour cap,” under which at least half of the dates on major tours would have to be opened to competition from regional promoters and independent venues. DeGeorge said a breakup is necessary, but not sufficient, if Live Nation continues to control tours.

“A breakup needs to happen,” he said, “but if Live Nation is still controlling the tours, they still control the industry.”

Musician Says Ticketing Practices Damage Artist-Fan Relationship

Franz Nicolay, a musician, writer and former member of The Hold Steady, focused on working musicians rather than superstar tours. Nicolay said the music industry tends to focus on artists such as Taylor Swift and Bruce Springsteen, but Live Nation/Ticketmaster’s power also affects “the broad popular music middle class” of non-famous music workers.

Nicolay said his own music income over the last five years has come roughly 10% from record royalties and 90% from live performance and merchandise sold at shows.

“We are no longer really in the recording business,” Nicolay said. “We’re in the performance business.”

That means working musicians depend on repeat customers, not one-time maximum extraction. Nicolay said artists want fans who can afford a ticket, still have money for merchandise or drinks, and want to return the next time the band tours. But he said business practices artists do not control — including unexpected fees and extreme resale markups — damage the artist-fan relationship.

“If concert tickets sell out in seconds and instantly appear on secondary markets for five times the price, or if mysterious fees add 20 or 30 percent at checkout, they can’t complain to Ticketmaster, they come to our Facebook page,” Nicolay said. “Business practices we can’t control hurt our crucial relationship with our fan community.”

Nicolay also urged the court to go beyond a narrow Ticketmaster/Live Nation split. He said any remedy should separate Live Nation’s venue and artist management businesses from its tour promotion businesses.

Resale Cap Debate Surfaces Alongside Breakup Demands

The hearing also highlighted a policy tension that has surfaced repeatedly in ticketing debates. Several witnesses and lawmakers paired their calls for structural remedies against Live Nation/Ticketmaster with support for resale-price caps at or near face value. Blumenthal called for a secondary-market price cap, and Nicolay said artists want resale and speculation capped so fans are not exploited “at no benefit to us, the artists.”

For ticketing markets, that distinction matters. The forum’s central antitrust argument was that Live Nation/Ticketmaster’s power over promotion, venues, ticketing and artist relationships distorts both primary and secondary markets. But resale caps, particularly when pursued without corresponding limits on primary-market pricing, have separately drawn scrutiny because they can restrict independent resale marketplaces while leaving promoter and ticketing company control over initial pricing intact.

Nicolay nevertheless argued that Live Nation’s public posture as an ally against resale should be viewed skeptically. He said trial evidence showed Live Nation has been “complicit in encouraging predatory resale practices,” while using the resale issue as a way to keep some artists quiet about harms they have experienced.

Witnesses Say Fear of Retaliation Still Chills Criticism

That led into one of the hearing’s strongest closing themes: fear of retaliation.

Raskin said his office reached out to many musical artists and that Nicolay was the only one willing to testify. Nicolay said some artists are “reasonably worried about retaliation,” especially if they expect to rely on Live Nation to tour successfully at larger venues or festivals.

“Even after this huge win, it’s going to take some time for artists to believe that it’s real,” Nicolay said.

DeGeorge said venues and artists are in a difficult position because speaking publicly can risk getting on Live Nation’s “bad side.” He said he personally has less to lose because Crowbar is already closing.

“Sometimes you’ve got to stand up and talk about things and be a little bit courageous, not knowing exactly what could come out of it,” DeGeorge said.

Raskin closed the forum by saying lawmakers want the court victory to become “meaningful change.”

That is now the core question for the remedies phase: whether the Live Nation/Ticketmaster verdict results in structural relief capable of changing the live entertainment market, or whether the company exits the case with another settlement critics say will leave its core power intact.

Watch the Full Hearing: