Live Nation, Ticketmaster Fail To Get Antitrust Claims Dismisset

While Live Nation-Ticketmaster May Have Entered The Year, AS They Called It, “Hopeful” That Donald Trump's Presidency would Bode Well For Its Fight Against The Massive Antitrust Lawsuit Filed by Federal Prosecutors Last May, The Company Too to Hit Friday When A BIDEN-APPAINTED JUDGE REJECTED ITS BID TO DISMISS A Core Element of the Justice Department's Complaint.

In a Seven-Page Ruling Obtained by Rolling StoneUs District Judge Arun Subramanian Refused To Tox the Doj's Claim That Live Nation Coerces Articles Into Its Concert Promotion Services IF They Want To Perform At Venues in the Company's Vast Network of Major Amphitheaters.

SUBRANIAN-THE SAME JUDGE WHO Oversaw Sean “Diddy” Combs' Re-Arraignment On Racketeering Conspiracy and Sex TrafficKing Charges Friday-Found That at this Early Stage of the Government's Lawsuit, Prosecutors Have Sufficiently Established Their Claim That Live Live Nation Engaged in illegal “Tying,” The Practice of Requiring Artists to Purchase One Product OR Service to Gain Access To A Different Product OR Service.

The Judge, Based in New York, Shot Down Live Nation's Argument that it's not Forcing Arts Into “Tying” Because it's actually competing Concert Promoters Hired by Artists, Not The Artists Themselves, Who Rent the Venues, and Live Nation has no duty to aid its competitors. “The Complaint Explains That two to Live Nation's Monopoly Power in The Large-Amphitheater Market, Articles Are Effectively Locked Into Live Nation As the Promoter For A Tour Stops At Large Amphitheaters,” Subramanian Wrote.

“The Nature of the Financial Arrangement Beteween Promoters and Artists is a factual question that can't be resolved on the pleadings, and the complaint at least suggests that it's art-art-shift,” He Wrote. “If the evidence show that promoters book venues on behalf of specific artists, that artists are the driving force force Behind Which venues to book and when, and that arts are coeced Intre Live Nation As Their Promoter If they want access to Live Nation's Amphitheaters, Plaintiffs May Have a Viable Tying claim. ”

Lawyers and Reps Representing Live Nation Did Not Immediately Respond To A Request for Comment Friday. The Doj Filed the Underlying Complaint With Attorneys General From 29 States and the District of Columbia, Painting the concert Giant As a Mob-like Organization and Aiming to Break It Up. In The Second Part of His Decision Issued Friday, Judge Sumanian Ruled That The States Had Established Their Standing to Act on Behalf of Consumers Who Claim Ayy Were Two to Live Nation-Ticketmaster's Alleged Anti-Competitive Practices in The Primary Ticketing Market.

“The Thrust of the Complaint is That Live Nation Engaged in A Variety of Exclusionary conduct to Maintain Its Monopoly Over Primary-Ticketing Services, and consumers Suffered Injury by Using Those Services and Getting Owlycarged. Whatever Market Definitions One Employs, where A Defendant Unlawfully Maintains Its Monopoly Over a Product Through a Course of Exclusionary conduct Focusing On That Product, Consumers of That Product Alleging That Were Overchrged Suffer a Cognizable Injury, “He Wrote.

“We are not here Today Because Live Nation-Ticketmaster's conduct is inconvenient, or frustrating. We are here because as We allge that leads is anti-compliance, and illegal, “former actorney general mercy garland said when prosecutors first filed the Lawsuit Last May. “We allge that live nation has illegally monopolyzed markets across the live concert industry in the United States for Far Too Long. It is time to break it up. “

Formers Assistant Attney General Jonathan Kanter Initialy Led The Charge for the Doj. He Left the Department in December After Trump Won the Election. Trump's Nominee to Replace Him, Gail Slater, was confited on Tuesday. UNLIKE TRUMP'S OTHER APPOINTES, She Has Been Critical of Corporate Power. Still, It's Not Yet Clear How She Will Handle The Biden-ara Lawsuit's She's inhering.