Live Nation has publicly called on the US Department of Justice to settle the government’s antitrust lawsuit against the company and its subsidiary Ticketmaster, arguing that the prospect of a court-ordered breakup is effectively dead.
In a statement published today (February 19) — the same day the company reported record annual revenues of $25.2 billion — Live Nation’s EVP of Corporate and Regulatory Affairs, Dan Wall, said the company is “ready” to reach a deal with the DOJ and state attorneys general.
Wall writes: “Cases in this posture nearly always settle, and with the prospect of structural relief off the table, that is what should happen in this case now.
“Live Nation is ready to make that happen with DOJ and any State Attorney General committed to realistic, common-sense solutions to the remaining issues.”
He adds: “We understand that any settlement needs to be meaningful for our venue customers, for artists, and of course for fans. That is what we want, too.”
The statement, titled It’s Time to Move On, can be read in full here.
Wall’s statement comes one day after US District Judge Arun Subramanian issued a ruling that narrowed the scope of the DOJ’s case.
The judge dismissed claims that Live Nation monopolized the concert promotion market, while allowing claims related to Ticketmaster’s dominance in venue-facing ticketing and Live Nation’s practice of tying access to its amphitheaters to its promotion services to proceed to trial.
Jury selection is currently scheduled to begin on March 2.
Live Nation’s argument centers on the dismissal of the concert promotion claims. Wall writes that this “undermines any serious argument for breaking up Live Nation and Ticketmaster“.
He continues: “First, it ends the narrative that concert promotion and ticketing are ‘mutually reinforcing monopolies.’ There was never much substance to that contention, but the idea at least was that the two monopolies propped up one another. Now [the] DOJ has failed to prove there is a concert promotion monopoly.”
Wall also argues that separating Live Nation from Ticketmaster “would not serve any remedial purpose, let alone be a legally permissible remedy”.
He writes: “The case is now about three things: long-term exclusive ticketing contracts, a discrete ticketing deal Ticketmaster has with Oakview Group, and Live Nation’s policy of not renting its amphitheaters to rival promoters. None of those claims, nor even all three taken together, warrants more than standard injunctive relief.”
Wall points to recent precedent to bolster his argument, citing the DOJ’s antitrust case against Google.
In that case, Judge Amit Mehta of the US District Court for the District of Columbia rejected the DOJ’s request to force Google to spin off its Chrome browser in September 2025, instead opting for more targeted remedies around exclusive default agreements.
Wall writes that breakups in monopolization cases are vanishingly rare: “The last time it happened was in 1980, when AT&T agreed to be broken up to resolve a monopolization case that was in the late stages of trial.”
He also notes that the DOJ itself had approved the Live Nation-Ticketmaster merger in 2010, and had at the time said it was “sure to benefit concertgoers, artists, and the industry as a whole”.
Wall’s statement directly targets the origins of the case under the Biden administration. He writes that former DOJ Antitrust Chief Jonathan Kanter “broke from usual DOJ practice and announced on Day One that ‘it was time to break up Live Nation and Ticketmaster’”.
Wall continues: “He also told the American public that the merger and its attendant evils were responsible for high ticket prices and fees. Of course, none of this was true.”
He adds: “On the eve of trial, DOJ has no evidence of that, and its argument has become that it doesn’t need to prove higher prices.”
The DOJ, joined by 39 US states and the District of Columbia, filed the lawsuit in May 2024, alleging monopolistic conduct across the live entertainment industry.
Despite Live Nation’s call for a settlement, not all parties may be willing to stand down.
Following yesterday’s ruling, New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement: “Live Nation has used its monopoly to rig the live events industry to its benefit, driving up costs with higher ticket prices and outrageous fees. Regardless of the path that the Department of Justice takes, my office will continue this case and we will see Live Nation in court.”
Wall’s statement arrives on the same day that Live Nation reported annual revenues of $25.2 billion for 2025, up 9% year-over-year, and adjusted operating income of $2.37 billion, up 10%.
The company said a record 159 million people attended Live Nation-promoted shows in 2025 across 55,000 concerts — up by 8 million on the prior year. For the first time, more people attended Live Nation concerts outside the US than inside it.