Supreme Court Rejects Live Nation’s Arbitration Appeal in Ticketing Antitrust Suit — Class Certification Hearing Set for December

Photo Credit: Stephen Talas

The Supreme Court has decided against hearing Live Nation’s appeal of a lower court ruling striking down Ticketmaster’s arbitration agreement. That rejection emerged alongside hundreds of others in an order list yesterday, and as usual, the document didn’t elaborate on the reasons for the denials. But it did rather definitively do away with Live Nation’s appeal – seemingly clearing the way for the plaintiffs to pursue class certification.

And this class-certification push – more on the scheduling details in a moment – could prove significant in light of the antitrust suit’s far-reaching claims. Turning back the clock to early 2022, the plaintiffs in their own words sued Live Nation “to recover the damages they suffered from paying supracompetitive fees on primary and secondary ticket purchases from Ticketmaster’s online platforms.”

Fast forward to October 2024, when an appellate panel upheld a district court ruling denying Live Nation’s attempt to compel arbitration under retooled Ticketmaster terms.

Before that, a July 2021 terms update had shifted the ticketing platform’s arbitration to an entity called New Era ADR – with an objective of batching and expediting similar claims under a “mass arbitration protocol.”

Not helping Ticketmaster’s case was (and is) the fact that the terms and arbitration clause applied to “any person using its website,” the panel reiterated.

Unsurprisingly, the appeals decision didn’t sit right with the defendants – hence the Supreme Court request, which, as explained by Live Nation/Ticketmaster, would have ultimately addressed “whether the FAA [Federal Arbitration Act] requires courts to enforce all arbitration agreements, not just arbitration agreements providing for the traditional, bilateral arrangements.”

Evidently, the nation’s highest court isn’t interested in exploring this or related subjects at the moment. Back to the underlying suit’s sought class certification, then, a related hearing has been teed up for early December.By their own description, the plaintiffs will look to certify a class including all U.S.-based customers who used Ticketmaster to purchase “a primary ticket and paid associated fees for primary ticketing services for an event at a major concert venue…at any point since 2010.”

Needless to say, this class would extend to a substantial number of individuals, and it’ll be worth closely tracking the case from here. Furthermore, the Supreme Court setback is the newest in a line of legal woes for Live Nation, which is also grappling with a DOJ antitrust suit and a (temporarily paused) FTC action.

Despite these points and a roughly 8% valuation slip for Live Nation stock (NYSE: LYV) since mid-September, the promoter’s shares, worth $155 a pop when the market closed today, are still up 40% from the same point in 2024.