{"id":244,"date":"2026-04-17T09:38:55","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T13:38:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/stateattorneysgeneral\/?p=244"},"modified":"2026-04-17T09:38:57","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T13:38:57","slug":"states-prevail-in-live-nation-antitrust-trial-lessons-from-the-verdict","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/stateattorneysgeneral\/2026\/04\/17\/states-prevail-in-live-nation-antitrust-trial-lessons-from-the-verdict\/","title":{"rendered":"States Prevail in Live Nation Antitrust Trial: Lessons from the Verdict"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>By <a href=\"https:\/\/www.duanemorris.com\/attorneys\/seanpmcconnell.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Sean P. McConnell<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.duanemorris.com\/attorneys\/christopherhcasey.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Christopher H. Casey<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.duanemorris.com\/attorneys\/katherinespeegle.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Katie Speegle<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On April 15, 2026, a federal jury found that Live Nation Entertainment and its Ticketmaster subsidiary violated federal and state antitrust laws. The verdict holds critical lessons for any business relying on vertical integration, exclusive contracts, or data-driven strategies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The jury concluded that Live Nation unlawfully monopolized multiple live entertainment markets by leveraging its dominant position in concert promotion, venue ownership, and ticketing to foreclose competition. Key evidence showed Ticketmaster controls approximately 86% of primary ticketing at major concert venues, while Live Nation\u2019s promotion arm handles roughly 70%. Internal communications\u2014including references to using a \u201cvelvet hammer\u201d against competitors and exerting power over concert-goers by \u201crobbing them blind\u201d\u2014proved particularly damaging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Read the full analysis on the <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/antitrustlaw\/2026\/04\/15\/states-win-antitrust-case-against-live-nation-lessons-from-a-landmark-antitrust-case\/\">Duane Morris Antitrust Law Blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Sean P. McConnell, Christopher H. Casey and Katie Speegle On April 15, 2026, a federal jury found that Live Nation Entertainment and its Ticketmaster subsidiary violated federal and state antitrust laws. The verdict holds critical lessons for any business relying on vertical integration, exclusive contracts, or data-driven strategies. The jury concluded that Live Nation &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/stateattorneysgeneral\/2026\/04\/17\/states-prevail-in-live-nation-antitrust-trial-lessons-from-the-verdict\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;States Prevail in Live Nation Antitrust Trial: Lessons from the Verdict&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[95,103,102,104],"ppma_author":[5],"class_list":["post-244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-antitrust","tag-live-nation","tag-state-attorneys-general","tag-ticketmaster"],"authors":[{"term_id":5,"user_id":6,"is_guest":0,"slug":"duanemorris3","display_name":"Duane Morris","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/843ff6e7a8fe5fc92109b47a45f34b6cf0ea499e6e788db23456c838b0ae6747?s=96&d=blank&r=g","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/stateattorneysgeneral\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/stateattorneysgeneral\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/stateattorneysgeneral\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/stateattorneysgeneral\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/stateattorneysgeneral\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/stateattorneysgeneral\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/stateattorneysgeneral\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/stateattorneysgeneral\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/stateattorneysgeneral\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/stateattorneysgeneral\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}