Live Nation has settled a lawsuit from investors who claimed that they were misled about the scope of the company’s legal vulnerability tied to allegedly anticompetitive business operations that led to the Justice Department filing an antitrust lawsuit that seeks to break up the Ticketmaster parent.
Lawyers for both sides on Friday informed the court of a $20 million deal to settle the proposed class action. The deal represents a “fair, reasonable and adequate” resolution to the case, the filing stated.
Investors filed the lawsuit in 2023 accusing the live events juggernaut of lying to them about conduct related to charging bloated fees, bundling services and retaliating against venues that choose a ticketing service provider other than Ticketmaster. It followed reports that federal prosecutors had opened an antitrust investigation into Live Nation after the ticketing platform’s systems crashed during a highly-anticipated presale for Taylor Swift tickets in what became a flashpoint over the company’s power over the live music industry.
The complaint pointed to a series of allegedly false or misleading statements issued by Live Nation over antitrust scrutiny about its business practices. One example: it said that it “does not engage in behaviors that could justify antitrust litigation, let alone orders that would require it to alter fundamental business practices” in response to Ticketmaster canceling plans for a public sale of Swift concert tickets. In a lengthy statement, the company claimed that there’s robust competition with StubHub, SeatGeek and Vivid, among others, and that “no serious argument can be made that Ticketmaster has the kind of market position in secondary ticketing” that would support a lawsuit. Investors said that they should’ve been warned that Live Nation was likely to “incur regulatory scrutiny and face fines, penalties, and reputational harm” as a result of its allegedly anticompetitive conduct, the lawsuit claimed.
In Friday’s filing, lawyers for the investors said they agreed to settle the case because of the “substantial financial benefit” the deal provides. It also cited the “significant risks and costs of continued litigation and trial.”
Live Nation said that the deal eliminates the “uncertainty, burden, and expense of further protracted litigation.” It added, “Defendants expressly deny that Lead Plaintiffs asserted any valid claims as to any of them, and expressly deny any and all allegations of fault, liability, wrongdoing, or damages whatsoever.”
The court last year denied Live Nation’s bid to dismiss the lawsuit. Shortly after, the Justice Department formally filed an antitrust lawsuit against the company.
The class includes investors who purchased Live Nation shares from Feb. 23, 2022 to May 22, 2024 and incurred losses. Live Nation and lawyers for the investors didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
The complaint named chief executive Michael Rapino and chief financial officer Joe Berchtold. It alleged violations of the Securities Exchange Act, which prohibits misrepresentations and misleading omissions in connection to securities transactions.
In 2019, the Justice Department concluded that Live Nation violated the terms of a settlement to greenlight its 2010 merger with Ticketmaster by forcing venues to accept Ticketmaster’s ticketing services as a condition for hosting Live Nation performers and retaliating against those that refused. Under an amended deal that allows a monitor to investigate further breaches of the consent decree until 2025, the company was barred from tying services and is subject to a $1 million fine for violations.
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