Sprawling antitrust case against Live Nation and Ticketmaster draws to a close

MANHATTAN (CN) — After about five weeks of testimony and a surprise settlement with the feds, a landmark antitrust trial came to a close Thursday as Live Nation and Ticketmaster traded final barbs with the 34 states accusing them of running an unlawful monopoly.

The sprawling Sherman Act case brought testimony from music executives, venue operators and even Mumford and Sons’ Ben Lovett. Some claimed that Live Nation and Ticketmaster used their market dominance to pressure them into business on less favorable terms. Others testified that the vertically integrated companies had no such leverage, and were merely the most popular options because they were the best services.

“Venues and artists are better off today than they ever have been,” Live Nation’s counsel David Marriott said Thursday, reminding the jury of the several witnesses — including executives from sports teams like Inter Miami and the Los Angeles Clippers and managers for musical artists like Drake — who lauded the companies as innovative and effective during their testimonies.

Throughout his two-hour closing remarks, Marriott accused the suing states of cherrypicking data to make Live Nation and Ticketmaster’s respective market shares more dominant than they really are.

The states claim that Live Nation owns, operates or exclusively books 78% of the 87 large amphitheaters in the United States. It uses that control, according to the states, as leverage over artists who hope to perform there.

But at trial, Live Nation insisted the states artificially defined that market, arbitrarily selecting 8,000 seats as the floor on what makes a “large” amphitheater while excluding other outdoor venues like stadiums from their count.

“They gerrymandered their way to big numbers,” Marriott argued.

However, the states claim that Live Nation’s employees and executives repeatedly admitted to their market dominance through years of internal communications. The states’ attorney Jeffrey Kessler, through a raspy Brooklyn accent, harked back to messages from the likes of Ben Baker, a Live Nation ticketing employee, who boasted to a colleague about gouging concertgoers and “robbing them blind.”

Kessler also referenced testimony from Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino, who described building a metaphorical “moat around the castle” and bragging that “we alone can move the market.”

Of the amphitheater market calculations, Kessler reiterated an argument he made on the states’ behalf at trial: that musicians may not have any other options when performing in amphitheaters in some U.S. cities.

“The artists who want large amphitheater tours have nowhere else to go,” Kessler said during his own closing on Thursday. “That’s not gerrymandering the market.”

He additionally raised doubts over the venue executives who testified on behalf of Live Nation and Ticketmaster, many via deposition. Kessler insinuated that portions of their testimonies seemed coerced.

“Those videos were weird,” he said. “It made me think of a Jedi mind trick.”

Marriott sharply rebuked the suggestion, calling it “fanciful.”

“None of these people lied and there’s no basis for anyone to suggest that,” he said.

The 34 states are looking for damages for concertgoers, who they claim were overcharged for every stub they bought on Ticketmaster thanks to the anticompetitive conduct from the company and its parent in Live Nation. Kessler asked the jurors to find that the states are entitled to $1.72 per ticket sold in restitution.

Live Nation and Ticketmaster already settled this case last month with the Department of Justice, which unceremoniously announced the deal on the fifth day of trial. The $280 million settlement orders several changes to the companies’ business models; Live Nation has agreed to open up some of its amphitheaters to other promoters.

It also agreed not to tie artists’ use of its venues to them using Ticketmaster.

But a vast majority of the states, 39 of which were initially trying the case alongside the DOJ, were unsatisfied with the terms of the deal. Many critics saw the settlement as a slap on the wrist from an administration that put the needs of big business over those of consumers.

“The settlement recently announced with the U.S. Department of Justice fails to address the monopoly at the center of this case, and would benefit Live Nation at the expense of consumers. We cannot agree to it,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said of the deal.

With only a handful of states joining the DOJ’s settlement, 34 resumed the trial without the federal government’s backing.

The jurors will start deliberating Friday.

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