The Justice Department's antitrust case against Live Nation Entertainment, the parent of Ticketmaster, went to trial in New York on March 2, 2026. About a week later the department settled and withdrew its claims.
The terms: a $280 million fine, service fees capped at 15 percent at Live Nation-owned venues, divestiture of 13 U.S. amphitheaters, an end to exclusive Ticketmaster contracts at those venues with at least half of tickets available through competing platforms, permission for artists to use outside promoters, and eight years of consent-decree oversight. Live Nation was not broken up, and it kept Ticketmaster.
More than 30 states refused to join the settlement and continued litigating. Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday said, “Pennsylvania joined this bipartisan coalition because free markets require real competition.” New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport said the settlement “doesn't adequately fix the harm Live Nation has done to the marketplace.” The trial resumed on March 18 with the states as the remaining plaintiffs.
In August 2026, The Currency reported that shortly before the trial's March 2 start, Trump telephoned a senior Justice Department official and told them to “Settle it.” That account is single-sourced and anonymous: the official is unnamed, and the claim rests on what that person later told associates. No other outlet has independently confirmed the call, and it should be read as an allegation rather than an established fact. The settlement terms and the states' rejection are separately and well documented.