With their antitrust trial tentatively set to start next Monday, Live Nation and Ticketmaster have filed a motion to delay the proceedings so that an appeals court can determine whether two legal questions could “dramatically change” and “substantially narrow” the trial.
The motion, filed on Sunday and reviewed by Variety, asks for an interlocutory appeal to examine two “critical questions of law” that Judge Arun Subramanian decided last week. Live Nation and Ticketmaster are seeking a review before the trial to avoid a “complex, month-long case” that “may well prove wholly unnecessary.”
The companies are asking the appeals circuit to consider the court’s decision that the Department of Justice does “not need evidence of actual price discrimination to prove their alleged targeted customer markets in this actual monopolization case,” and that “Plaintiffs [could] proceed with a tying claim without a properly defined market for the tied product.” They argue that if the court finds one or both questions for appeal, it should stay additional proceedings pending resolution of the appeal.
Jury selection is anticipated to begin on March 2 in the DOJ’s antitrust case, which the government filed in 2024 to break up the companies. Last Wednesday, Subramanian narrowed some portions of the suit but allowed others to proceed in a trial that could substantially change how the ticketing industry operates.
Following the ruling, Live Nation’s top lawyer wrote a blog post titled “It’s Time to Move On” that urged the DOJ to settle the suit without the company having to sell Ticketmaster. Shortly after publishing the post and sending it to the press, it was quietly taken down from the site.
“The claim that Live Nation and Ticketmaster are responsible for high concert ticket prices and fees was, and is, false,” wrote Dan Wall, evp of corporate and regulatory affairs. “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. We’ll see. But the bigger fiction was that this case could or should result in a court order breaking up Live Nation and Ticketmaster. We’ve always said that was implausible and improper, and yesterday’s summary judgment decision should put that false promise to rest.”
The trial’s advancement comes in tandem with last week’s year-end earnings report, where Live Nation posted its biggest-ever year amid increased global ticket sales.