NEW YORK (AP) — An attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice told jurors in a civil trial on Tuesday that the concert industry is broken because Ticketmaster and its parent company, Live Nation Entertainment, have monopolized the market, driving up prices for consumers, but the companies say the government is wrong.
David Dahlquist, an attorney with the DOJ’s Antitrust Division, said in his opening remarks that the United States and 39 states rely on the Manhattan federal jury to end the monopoly and restore a competitive market that puts more money in the hands of artists and fans.
“This case is about power—the power of a monopoly to control competition,” Dahlquist said, adding that “today, the concert-ticket industry is broken.”
David Marriott, arguing on behalf of the companies, pushed back against the government’s claims.
“We’ll let the numbers speak for themselves,” Marriott said, adding: “We do not have monopoly power.”
Judge Arun Subramanian has instructed jurors that evidence will be presented over the next six weeks before they decide whether Live Nation and Ticketmaster violated antitrust laws.
The trial stems from a 2024 lawsuit accusing the companies of stifling competition and controlling everything from concert promotion to ticket sales.
Ticketmaster, founded in 1976 and merged with Live Nation in 2010, is the world’s largest seller of tickets for live events across music, sports, theater and more.
Dahlquist noted that the ticket seller sparked outrage in November 2022 when its site crashed during a pre-sale for Taylor Swift’s tour.
The company argued that the site was overwhelmed by both fans and bots posing as consumers in order to snatch up tickets and resell them on secondary markets. The fiasco prompted congressional hearings and bills in state legislatures aimed at better protecting consumers.
Dahlquist charged that Live Nation’s anti-competitive practices include long-term contracts—five to seven years—to prevent venues from selecting rivals and to block venues from using multiple ticket sellers.
The dispute between Ticketmaster and artists and fans goes back three decades. Pearl Jam attacked the company in 1994, years before the merger with Live Nation, though the Justice Department ultimately declined to pursue criminal charges.
Live Nation insists that it is the artists and their teams who set prices and decide how tickets are sold.
Marriott argued that Live Nation is the world’s biggest supporter of musicians, enabling 159 million people in 2025 to see 11,000 artists performing at 55,000 concerts.
He said the government has overstated how much the companies earn, even claiming that Ticketmaster pockets $7 per ticket when, in fact, it takes in about $5 and nets less than $2 after expenses.
Live Nation and Ticketmaster, he said, “are in the business of making people happy.”
