The antitrust case against Live Nation and Ticketmaster
Overview · reviewed October 28, 2026
In May 2024 the Justice Department and states sued Live Nation Entertainment, the country's largest concert promoter, and its Ticketmaster subsidiary, accusing them of an illegal monopoly over live events.[1][2]The department settled in March 2026 in a deal it said would let competitors sell tickets, but the states pressed on, and in April a New York jury found that the companies had engaged in an anticompetitive monopoly.[3][2]
Follow this story to see new developments when you return.
The department settled in March 2026 in a deal it said would let competitors sell tickets, but the states pressed on, and in April a New York jury found that the companies had engaged in an anticompetitive monopoly.[3][2]
Coverage over time
Share of tracked outlets · monthly average of weekly shares (UTC)
8%
Apr 202420252026this month
LeftCenterRight
Each bar is the share of the outlets on our Left / Center / Right rating scale that we tracked publishing that week which carried reporting on this story, split by the outlets' ratings. Over more than two years each bar is a month: the average of that month's weekly shares, so the shape stays readable. The weekly table below keeps every week. We track more outlets now than in the archive, so a share keeps earlier and later weeks comparable. An outlet counts once a week however much it published, and outlets in one ownership or syndication group count as one on each side they appear on. A rating describes the outlet, not the report. A gap means no such reports were collected that week, not that nothing was reported anywhere. Weeks run Monday to Sunday in UTC, so a report published on a Sunday evening in US Eastern time counts in the next week. 10 more outlets off the scale (not rated, or outside the left-right graphs) also reported; they are not in this chart. See them.
Weekly counts, outlets and reports (5 weeks with coverage)
Outlets on the rating scale that carried this story each week, of the outlets tracked that week, newest first
Week of (UTC)
Left
Center
Right
Of tracked
Share
Receipts
Apr 13, 2026
15
19
6
40 of 156
26%
Mar 9, 2026
12
17
5
34 of 166
20%
Sep 15, 2025
5
10
1
16 of 191
8%
May 20, 2024
18
35
19
72 of 226
32%
Apr 15, 2024
1
3
1
5 of 247
2%
Latest coverage
The newest reporting in this story's record.
Apr 14, 2026 · first reported · Headline from WMUR
The Wall Street Journal reported in April 2024 that the department was preparing to sue,[4] and the suit followed weeks later.[1] In September 2025 the federal government and seven states filed a separate suit accusing the companies of failing to crack down on ticket resellers.[5] During the states' trial, messages in which a Live Nation employee called customers "so stupid" and said the company was "robbing them blind" drew attention,[6] and the jury ruled for the states.[2]
