The AGs of 10 states join the US DOJ's antitrust lawsuit seeking to break up Live Nation and Ticketmaster; 39 states, plus DC, are now part of the lawsuit
For Live Nation and Ticketmaster, the significance is not a new allegation but wider state participation in the same effort, increasing the political and legal weight behind the requested remedy.
First-order effects
Thirty-nine states and the District of Columbia are now aligned with the DOJ as plaintiffs, broadening the government side pursuing a breakup of Live Nation and Ticketmaster.
Live Nation and Ticketmaster must defend the case against a larger coordinated group of enforcers rather than the original plaintiff coalition.
Second-order effects
The enlarged state bloc raises the cost of resolving the dispute: any remedy acceptable to federal enforcers may also need to satisfy a broad set of state plaintiffs.
Other live-events businesses with connected promotion, venue, and ticketing operations gain a clearer signal that state AGs may join federal challenges to alleged market power across those links.
Third-order effects
If this degree of state-federal coordination becomes more common, antitrust remedies for vertically integrated platforms could become harder to contain to a single agency’s negotiated outcome.
The case tests whether enforcement can reshape the structure of live-event distribution, rather than merely constrain particular conduct; that outcome remains dependent on litigation or settlement terms.
The trend: State attorneys general are becoming more consequential partners in federal efforts to challenge dominant platforms whose power spans multiple layers of an industry.
Case Update ‼️ Today, TN & the USDOJ welcomed ten additional states to our historic, bipartisan antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation/Ticketmaster — bringing the total number of co-plaintiffs to 41. Read the amended complaint below: ➡️ https://www.tn.gov/... [image]
🚨Ring the alarm: As part of our lawsuit against @LiveNation and @Ticketmaster, my office, @TheJusticeDept, and our group of AGs are now seeking money for fans who were overcharged by these companies' illegal monopoly over the concert and live event industry.
Among other things, this demonstrates that taking on monopoly power is a bipartisan issue! The same is true of ticket market regulation: both Democratic and Republican controlled state legislatures have taken action this year to ban speculative tickets!
Per the Tennessee Attorney General's Office, 10 more states have signed on to the lawsuit against Ticketmaster. With 41 plaintiffs, Kentucky is still not one of them. [image]
Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Mexico, South Dakota, Utah, and Vermont joined the DOJ's lawsuit against Live Nation-Ticketmaster for monopolizing the live concert industry. A total of 39 states, plus Washington D.C., are now suing the company. [image…
Glad to see @mikehilgers NE's attorney general join the U.S. Dept of Justice's lawsuit against @Ticketmaster Anyone out there had a good experience with their fees or services?
New tidbit from DOJ's amended complaint against Live Nation/Ticketmaster on ubiquitous mogul Irving “Poison Dwarf” Azoff's ongoing collusion w/ the monopoly: LN paid Azoff's Oak View “significant annual payments” & also “incentive payments” for agreeing to act as its “pimp” [imag…