A Manhattan federal jury found after four days of deliberation that Live Nation and its Ticketmaster subsidiary operated an illegal anticompetitive monopoly over concert venues, with Ticketmaster controlling 86 percent of the concert ticketing market and overcharging consumers $1.72 per ticket in 22 states. The verdict came after more than 30 states rejected a federal settlement reached by the Trump administration and continued the trial, seeking stronger remedies than the settlement's fee caps and competitor access provisions. The case, originally brought by the Justice Department and dozens of states during the Biden administration, revealed internal messages from Live Nation executive Benjamin Baker calling customers 'so stupid' and boasting about 'robbing them blind.' The companies now face hundreds of millions in damages and potential court-ordered divestitures of venues, though the federal settlement does not force a breakup of the 2010 Live Nation-Ticketmaster merger.
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