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Live Nation Settlement Spurs Chaos in Court
The Trump administration settled its antitrust case against concert monopoly Live Nation during its antitrust trial in New York City last week, for the equivalent of three days’ revenue and an agreement to somehow “open source” its ticketing platform. But no one told the judge, the 12-member jury, or the Department of Justice line attorneys prosecuting the case about the deal until this morning, causing a meltdown that played out like a courtroom version of the internet Armageddon that touched off the case in the first place, the infamous 2022 presale event for Taylor Swift’s $2 billion Eras Tour.
Live Nation stock surged 5 percent on the news, in defiance of the broader bear market.
Judge Arun Subramanian demanded to know why Live Nation hadn’t told him about the deal during a private meeting Friday evening, wondered what he was supposed to tell the jury, and bemoaned the government’s “absolute disrespect for the court, the jury, and the entire process.” Attorneys for at least 27 of the 40 states (plus the District of Columbia) that had joined the case offered to continue prosecuting it in lieu of the DOJ lawyers. Judge Subramanian told the jury to go home and report back to the courtroom in a week, which may not be enough time for the remaining states to assemble a full team of litigators and pursue a case where Live Nation’s main argument would be that the experts at DOJ already settled it.
But wait, how exactly did the DOJ propose to transfer the agency’s work product, expert witnesses, and years of accumulated expertise on the topic to a completely different group of attorneys, the judge asked the government’s lead trial attorney David Dahlquist, according to a surreal livestream posted on X by the one-man Manhattan legal news outlet Inner City Press:
“I only saw the term sheet when you did, your honor,” Dahlquist replied.
“You are the lead trial counsel and you were only told when I asked this morning?”
“Correct.”
Live Nation stock surged 5 percent on the news, in defiance of the broader bear market.
Judge Arun Subramanian demanded to know why Live Nation hadn’t told him about the deal during a private meeting Friday evening, wondered what he was supposed to tell the jury, and bemoaned the government’s “absolute disrespect for the court, the jury, and the entire process.” Attorneys for at least 27 of the 40 states (plus the District of Columbia) that had joined the case offered to continue prosecuting it in lieu of the DOJ lawyers. Judge Subramanian told the jury to go home and report back to the courtroom in a week, which may not be enough time for the remaining states to assemble a full team of litigators and pursue a case where Live Nation’s main argument would be that the experts at DOJ already settled it.
But wait, how exactly did the DOJ propose to transfer the agency’s work product, expert witnesses, and years of accumulated expertise on the topic to a completely different group of attorneys, the judge asked the government’s lead trial attorney David Dahlquist, according to a surreal livestream posted on X by the one-man Manhattan legal news outlet Inner City Press:
“I only saw the term sheet when you did, your honor,” Dahlquist replied.
“You are the lead trial counsel and you were only told when I asked this morning?”
“Correct.”
https://prospect.org/2026/03/09/live-nation-settlement-spurs-chaos-in-court/]
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