{"id":10764,"date":"2026-05-23T13:20:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T13:20:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/live-nation-asks-judge-to-overturn-monopoly-jury-verdict\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T13:20:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T13:20:21","slug":"live-nation-asks-judge-to-overturn-monopoly-jury-verdict","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/live-nation-asks-judge-to-overturn-monopoly-jury-verdict\/","title":{"rendered":"Live Nation Asks Judge To Overturn Monopoly Jury Verdict"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n\tLive Nation is asking a federal judge to overturn the blockbuster verdict that the music giant is an illegal monopoly, arguing there was so little evidence during the trial that the jury\u2019s decision \u201ccannot stand.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a pair of motions filed in Manhattan federal court Thursday (May 21), Live Nation is urging the judge to undo the April verdict, in which jurors sided decisively with a coalition of state attorneys general who called the concert company a \u201cmonopolistic bully.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\tLive Nation wants the judge to either reverse the verdict entirely or grant the company a new trial. It says the states lacked sufficient evidence to win the case and instead had relied on \u201ccherrypicked\u201d data and claims designed to \u201cinflame and distract\u201d the jury.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIn the end, the jury verdict is legally indefensible,\u201d the company\u2019s lawyers write in the filing, obtained and first reported by Billboard<\/em>. \u201cAt the very least, a new trial is needed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThursday\u2019s filings are the procedural first step in Live Nation\u2019s efforts to overturn the verdict. If denied \u2014 such post-trial motions face long odds in any lawsuit \u2014 the company will then take the case to a federal appeals court, and then to the Supreme Court if necessary.<\/p>\n

\n\tThose efforts will have new stakes after the states formally asked earlier on Thursday that the judge must punish Live Nation by forcing it to sell Ticketmaster \u2014 a drastic change that would have major implications for the live music industry. Live Nation responded that a breakup is not legally available and the states\u2019 request for one is \u201cperformative and political.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\tThe Department of Justice and dozens of states sued Live Nation in 2024, claiming the company (which acquired Ticketmaster in 2010) had grown into a monopoly that dominates live music: \u201cIt is time to break it up,\u201d said then-attorney general Merrick Garland.<\/p>\n

\n\tA week after the case went to trial in March, the DOJ agreed to a surprise settlement. But dozens of states pushed ahead, with the goal of splitting Ticketmaster from Live Nation. And on April 15, they won a total victory: A verdict that Live Nation had violated federal antitrust laws by illegally monopolizing the market for ticketing services and other elements of the live music ecosystem.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn Thursday\u2019s filings, Live Nation argues that such a verdict was \u201ccontrary to the clear weight of the evidence\u201d presented to jurors during the trial. Rather than concrete proof and valid legal claims, the company says the states\u2019 case was mostly built on scaring jurors with \u201clegally irrelevant\u201d stories about harm the company had allegedly inflicted on music fans.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHours of trial time were spent on prices for lawn chairs and parking. Phrases like \u2018robbing them blind baby\u2019 and \u2018velvet hammer\u2019 were plaintiffs\u2019 mantras,\u201d the company\u2019s lawyers write, referring to specific moments from the trial, including unflattering internal messages in which Live Nation execs bragged about raising prices.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cNone of this evidence should have come in, and its devastating impact became more apparent as the trial progressed,\u201d Live Nation\u2019s lawyers write. \u201cWithout it, there is little chance the jury would have returned the same verdict.\u201d<\/p>\n


\"Billboard
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Live Nation is asking a federal judge to overturn the blockbuster verdict that the music giant is an illegal monopoly, arguing there was so little evidence during the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10765,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1051,423,392,344,1567,1206,942,395],"class_list":["post-10764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-asks","tag-judge","tag-jury","tag-live","tag-monopoly","tag-nation","tag-overturn","tag-verdict"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10764\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}