Live Nation Blasts DOJ for ‘Naked Attempt’ to Shift Legal Venues and Re-Litigate Its 2010 Merger Approval

Photo Credit: Live Nation

Live Nation is pushing to move the DOJ’s antitrust lawsuit to Washington DC, amidst its efforts to have portions of the case dismissed outright.Live Nation is blasting the Department of Justice’s antitrust lawsuit against it, pushing to see the case moved to Washington DC as it continually fights to have many portions of the case dismissed entirely.

According to Live Nation and Ticketmaster, who are represented in the suit by firms Latham & Watkins and Cravath Swaine & Moore, the case belongs in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, under the assertion that the DC federal court is the designated forum for matters related to the 2010 consent decree that allowed the Live Nation and Ticketmaster merger under specific conditions.

Live Nation and Ticketmaster also argue that the DOJ’s allegations of monopolistic practices are interconnected with whether the decree succeeded in protecting the competition, and therefore should be assessed by the DC court, where the merger was approved in the first place. Live Nation and Ticketmaster continue to refute the DOJ’s claims that the merger created an illegal monopoly that stifled the competition; they assert the lawsuit is baseless and that the merger and consent decree have not harmed competition.

“DOJ and 16 of the state Plaintiffs here contractually agreed that Live Nation and Ticketmaster could merge on prescribed terms and that they would not seek to ‘modify’ the decree except in the DC Court. Yet this lawsuit is a naked attempt to vitiate that bargain in a different venue,” the new filing states.“Plaintiffs’ decision to file in this Court should be seen for what it is: an attempt to downplay the significance of the findings underlying the decree and Defendants’ history of compliance, and circumvent the court that adjudged the decree to be in the public interest. Plaintiffs should not be allowed to do so. The Court should transfer this action to the DC Court.”

While presiding Judge Arun Subramanian has not yet issued a ruling on the proposed change of venue, his ruling regarding the confidentiality of the case included a reminder to both parties that “discovery needs to get going in this case, because the March 2, 2026 trial date is set in stone.”

Live Nation is also pushing to maintain key corporate officers, including antitrust guru Dan Wall, able to access to all discovery files in legal filings related to the case. Dan Wall is a long-time architect in Live Nation’s legal defense of its business practices as they relate to competition. But he and Kimberly Tobias, Live Nation SVP of Litigation, “cannot be trusted to keep secret certain information provided to the DOJ” by Live Nation’s competition in its investigation leading up to the suit, according to the Justice Department.Naturally, Live Nation wants its in-house legal team to maintain full access to all aspects of the case, and indicates it doesn’t mind there being restrictions on what they can see as long as they remain in the loop. But the DOJ reiterates to the court that Live Nation “caveat their proposal with a broad loophole that renders [the restrictions] meaningless.”

Judge Subramanian has issued a ruling regarding Wall and Tobias, proposing a two-tiered access system on case-related documents, “preserving the right” of Wall and Tobias to participate in the corporation’s defense alongside external counsel while restricting their access to certain documents that could provide confidential information about Live Nation competitors. The deadline for the DOJ and Live Nation to hash out the specifics of that ruling was set for today (July 25), or the court will work it out for them based on each side’s sticking points.