Resuming the Live Nation experience with the ‘Velvet Hammer’

After a chaotic week after Department of Justice mid-trial settlement With Live Nation-Ticketmaster, the antitrust trial returned surprisingly smoothly on Monday — this time, with dozens of states leading the case.

This is not the outcome the states originally wanted. Because of concerns about the ability to effectively prosecute the case and fear of jury bias due to the change, they requested a mistrial, which would have restarted the court battle at an unknown future date. But an exasperated Judge Arun Subramanian seemed likely to deny the request, and once the states figured out how to retain the Justice Department’s expert witness and were able to quickly appoint him, they withdrew their invalid request. After the new faces were introduced, the trial picked up roughly where it left off more than a week ago, with testimony that included how Live Nation used its “velvet hammer” against competitors.

Subramanian welcomed jurors back from “spring break” and asked them if they had read or encountered any news about the case while they were away, something prohibited by jury instructions. They either shook their heads or remained silent. He reminded jurors that the United States had settled its claims, as had a handful of countries, however The rest were to stand trial. He said jurors should not draw any conclusions from the fact that these parties are no longer in the case.

With the Justice Department out of the picture, the lawyers who questioned the first witnesses disappeared, replaced by a new team led by Jonathan Hatch, a lawyer from the New York Attorney General’s office, and Jeffrey Kessler of Winston & Strawn, who represented college athletes in the historic Supreme Court. Antitrust case against the NCAA On compensation.

State attorneys have questioned Jay Marciano, the chief operating officer of AEG, a competitor to Live Nation, on multiple fronts. While Hatch showed jurors portions of Marciano’s prior testimony, it was otherwise a fairly standard test. Marciano testified about the ticketing models he prefers in Europe, where multiple ticketing services often operate at a venue, in contrast to the norm in the United States where venues tend to accept exclusive ticketing contracts, often from Ticketmaster.

During voir dire, Marciano talked about an incident the jury heard about early in the trial: Penn’s call CEO of Barclays Center at the time and Live Nation CEO Michael Rapinoewho responded to the attempt to ditch Ticketmaster by saying it would be difficult for the arena to hold concerts with the new UBS Arena nearby. While Barclays interpreted this as a threat to protect Ticketmaster, Marciano emphasized that it is common as a concert promoter to play venues against each other for more favorable terms, and that UBS Arena would likely He was Attracting artists away from Barclays as the new venue in town.

Robert Rowe, Live Nation’s head of U.S. concerts, made a separate allegation: that Live Nation uses its extensive control of U.S. amphitheaters to maintain its monopoly power, leaving no other real options for artists looking to perform in large outdoor venues. Through Live Nation’s commercial pitches, plaintiff’s attorney Josh Havenbrack showed that the company has made great strides to gain power over four of the top five U.S. arenas in terms of ticket sales between 2016 and now. The 2018 presentation showed a largely highlighted list of the top 100 amps worldwide, with the green dots representing the 62 venues owned, managed or booked exclusively at Live Nation at the time. Since then, Rowe confirmed, the company has added several other companies to that list.

Live Nation denies it acted anticompetitively, and says states are ignoring other types of venues competing for the same shows. But Rowe wrote in a 2015 email that many non-star performers come wanting to play the stands — many of which, the evidence shown in court suggests, are controlled or reserved exclusively by Live Nation. He also wrote that in those cases, there was “room for tighter negotiations and deals.”

Other emails described how Live Nation considers its rival when considering lucrative deals. In a 2018 email exchange, Rapinoe questioned why Live Nation was making offers to a promoter in the South it had considered acquiring, Red Mountain Entertainment, before it actually owned it. The message to Red Mountain should be: “Either we are together or we are competitors,” Rowe wrote at the time. He described this approach as a “velvet hammer.” On the witness stand, Rowe said the message was not intended to “antagonize” the promoter, but was firm and sent a clear message. In a separate exchange that mentioned Red Mountain, Rowe wrote that Live Nation should not become “complacent” and “allow the little ones to encroach on the edges.” Rowe said the comment was general and not specific to the promoter. Long live the nation I got the red mountain In 2018.

In 2020, Rapino advised Roux not to allow Radio Disney and concert promoter Superfly into a Live Nation venue, even after they offered a contract that would net Live Nation at least $400,000 in profit for the loudspeaker rental. One executive raised concerns about letting an outside promoter on the megaphone, even though “the money is big.”

Finally, Roux has seen Live Nation’s profits per fan double in recent years, with profitability in large amps, a key market at issue, growing more than other venue categories between 2019 and 2024. Before taking some costs into account, the company made $386 million in revenue from large amps in 2024, nearly triple the amount it made in the segment in 2019.

Besides the delay in the case while the states team sorted out its next moves in the Justice Department’s absence, there was no noticeable change in the conduct of the trial and how new litigants worked, compared to the first week of the trial. The case is still expected to continue for several more weeks, although both sides said they have worked to trim witness lists to help make up for lost time. This weekend, one of the trial’s most prominent witnesses is expected to take the stand: the CEO of Live Nation.