Live Nation said President Donald Trump spoke with CEO Michael Rapino in February, weeks before the Justice Department settled its antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation and Ticketmaster. The disclosure, made in a court filing in New York, adds a White House thread to a case that was already moving fast toward a deal.
The timing is what makes the filing matter now. The Justice Department announced the settlement just days into the March trial, and most states refused to join it, leaving the case to continue even after the government had cut its deal. For readers following Ticketmaster, the question is no longer only what the settlement changed, but how it came together so quickly.
Live Nation said Trump and Rapino did not discuss substantive terms of any potential settlement. But the company also said White House lawyers were involved in some of the meetings, videoconferences, telephone calls and written communications between Live Nation and the Justice Department in February and March. That leaves a narrower but still important question hanging over the case: if the White House was in the mix, what role did that involvement play as the Justice Department moved to settle?
The settlement itself was modest compared with the scale of the lawsuit. It included a cap on service fees at some amphitheaters and new ticket-selling options for promoters and venues that could open the door to Ticketmaster competitors such as SeatGeek or AXS. Weeks later, a jury in New York found that Live Nation was a monopoly and that Ticketmaster’s anticompetitive practices had cost concertgoers and sports fans in 22 states an extra $1.72 per ticket.
That verdict did not close the matter either. In April, Live Nation said the verdict was not the last word on the matter, and the company now faces the consequences of a settlement reached in the middle of trial and a monopoly finding that followed after it. The filing does not explain whether the February conversation changed anything, but it shows that the path to the deal ran closer to the White House than had been publicly known.
