{"id":10154,"date":"2026-04-04T08:08:40","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T08:08:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/defense-witnesses-intimidation-claim\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T08:08:40","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T08:08:40","slug":"defense-witnesses-intimidation-claim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/defense-witnesses-intimidation-claim\/","title":{"rendered":"Defense Witnesses & ‘Intimidation’ Claim"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n\tIn the fourth week of Live Nation\u2019s antitrust trial, key defense witnesses took the stand as the concert giant continued to make its case to the jury \u2014 and the company also accused its biggest competitor of using underhanded tactics to prevent a key witness from testifying.<\/p>\n

\n\tYou\u2019re reading <\/em>Billboard\u2019s weekly Live Nation trial recap, a weekly one-sheet of everything that happened in the monopoly case against the concert giant. Stay tuned here each Friday for all the testimony and big events you might have missed.<\/em><\/p>\n

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\n\tWHAT HAPPENED:<\/strong> After the state attorneys general wrapped up their case last week, Live Nation continued presenting its own case to the jury this week \u2014 trying to persuade them to reject the narrative that the company is an illegal monopolist that bullies music venues into using Ticketmaster.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe blockbuster trial has been chugging along in Manhattan federal court since early March. It was initially led by the U.S. Department of Justice, but the feds reached a settlement with Live Nation a week into the trial. New York, California and dozens more states said that deal wasn\u2019t strong enough and have moved ahead with the trial, with the goal of breaking up Live Nation and Ticketmaster.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis week was a relatively short one in the trial, with no jury testimony on Wednesday (April 1) or Thursday (April 2) as the judge and the parties dealt with legal issues. The trial will continue Monday (April 6), with the potential for closing statements and the start of jury deliberations at some point in the next week.<\/p>\n

\n\tWHO TESTIFIED:<\/strong> Weeks after the ex-boss of Brooklyn\u2019s Barclays Center testified that he believed Live Nation had threatened to withhold major artists<\/a> if the venue switched from Ticketmaster to SeatGeek, the arena\u2019s current top exec took the stand and pushed back on that story.<\/p>\n

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\n\tLaurie Jacoby<\/strong>, CEO of Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment, testified Tuesday about problems during SeatGeek\u2019s tenure as the venue\u2019s ticketer, including with on-sales for concerts by The Strokes and My Chemical Romance, according to Inner City Press<\/a><\/em>. She told jurors those issues made it hard to attract and retain acts, which was what ultimately prompted the venue to switch back to Ticketmaster.<\/p>\n

\n\tOther Live Nation witnesses similarly countered earlier testimony. In the first week of the trial, an exec at the NHL\u2019s Minnesota Wild told jurors<\/a> that he\u2019d stuck with Ticketmaster because he feared the \u201ccatastrophic\u201d problem of losing Live Nation concerts. But on Monday, as reported by MLex<\/em><\/a>, an official at the NHL\u2019s Washington Capitals testified that Ticketmaster is a \u201cgreat business partner.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cTheir professionalism and the way they treat partners is outstanding,\u201d said Jim Van Stone<\/strong>, president of business operations at Monumental Sports & Entertainment, which also owns the NBA\u2019s Washington Wizards and D.C.\u2019s Capital One Arena. \u201cTicketmaster \u2026 that has met all our needs. We believe in the fact that an exclusive relationship [with Ticketmaster] is better for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAlso testifying this week was expert witness Eric Budish<\/strong>, a University of Chicago professor, who said Ticketmaster has a genuine competitive edge against rival ticketing services, per MLex<\/em>. But during cross-examination, he also admitted to having been paid more than $1 million by Live Nation for his services as an expert economic witness in the case.<\/p>\n

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\n\tPerhaps the biggest fireworks of the week came not in the form of live testimony to the jury, but in legal filings to the judge. In a scathing motion filed Thursday, Live Nation demanded sanctions (judicial punishment) against the states over accusations that AEG had secretly supplied them with a \u201cdossier of personal information\u201d about a former employee, which they then exploited to prevent him from testifying. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis blatant attempt to dissuade a witness from providing truthful testimony through intimidation is intolerable,\u201d Live Nation\u2019s lawyers wrote, asking the judge to inform jurors that AEG and the states have been \u201cclosely coordinating\u201d and that they had tried to suppress testimony that AXS was \u201cnever of comparable quality to Ticketmaster.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWHY IT MATTERS:<\/strong> Jacoby, Van Stone and Budish\u2019s testimony goes to the very heart of Live Nation\u2019s defense: That it has secured its massive market share over the past 15 years not through anti-competitive behavior, but by simply being better than its rivals.<\/p>\n

\n\tThreats to Barclays Center if it went with SeatGeek? No, Jacoby said \u2014 Ticketmaster was just the better ticketing option for the arena. Improper use of exclusivity contracts to make it harder for venues to switch? No, Van Stone said \u2014 exclusivity is just what some venues themselves prefer.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe sanctions motion serves that same argument. Live Nation alleges that the reason AEG and the states went to such lengths to suppress the ex-employee\u2019s testimony is because it would have shown that AEG\u2019s AXS ticketing system was simply not as good<\/em> as Ticketmaster \u2014 something Live Nation says would \u201cfundamentally undermine plaintiffs\u2019 case.\u201d If granted, it would send a powerful message to jurors that the government was worried that argument might succeed.<\/p>\n


\"Billboard
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