Live Nation executives have reportedly sidestepped the Justice Department’s antitrust division to negotiate directly with more sympathetic senior officials in the hopes of avoiding a monopoly trial. Citing “people familiar with the matter,” Semafor reports that some talks have excluded antitrust chief Gail Slater, who has pushed for a trial to take place in March after inheriting the case from the Biden administration.
The lawsuit filed by the DOJ and 30 state and district attorneys general in May 2024 seeks to “break up Live Nation-Ticketmaster,” alleging that Live Nation’s dominance provides unfair commercial advantages that enable it to illegally suppress competition in the live entertainment industry. The Trump administration’s pro-business mentality has been clashing with Slater’s skepticism of large corporate mergers “for months,” according to Semafor, impacting the outlook for a crackdown on antitrust litigation.
“This report contains misinformation about an ongoing matter that is confidential, but what can be said is that AAG Slater is very much involved” in the Live Nation matter, a Justice Department spokesman told Semafor. “Anonymous attempts to alter markets or outcomes will not undermine the integrity of this process. This DOJ will always pursue what is in the best interest of the American people.”