Live Nation and Ticketmaster lost the states' 2026 antitrust trial: where the case stands

On April 15, 2026, a jury in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York found that Live Nation Entertainment and its subsidiary Ticketmaster violated federal and state antitrust laws. The case was led by New York Attorney General Letitia James and 33 other attorneys general, who kept litigating after the U.S. Justice Department settled with Live Nation during the five-week trial. The jury decided liability and awarded damages per ticket sold. Remedies and financial penalties go to a separate bench trial, decided by the judge.

What the jury found

The attorney general's office said the jury found that Ticketmaster unlawfully maintains a monopoly in ticketing services at major concert venues, that Live Nation has a monopoly in the large amphitheaters artists use, and that Live Nation unlawfully requires artists who play the amphitheaters it owns to use its promotion services as well. The jury also found that fans were overcharged for concert tickets at major concert venues across the country. The office put the overcharge for New Yorkers at $1.72 per ticket in higher fees.

Live Nation gave its own account in its quarterly report to the Securities and Exchange Commission, filed on July 30, 2026. It said the jury awarded damages per ticket sold but did not calculate how many tickets they apply to. The company called the verdict and the damages award “legally infirm in a number of respects” and said its post-trial motions raising those issues were scheduled for argument on July 31, 2026. It said it intends to appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit “as needed and in due course.” In the first six months of 2026 it recognized $450 million in corporate expenses, its best estimate of the ultimate loss from the settling states and the jury's damages award.

How the case reached a verdict

The federal settlement the states rejected

The Justice Department and Live Nation signed a settlement term sheet on March 5, 2026, three days after the trial began, and its terms were made public on March 9. Six states, Arkansas, Iowa, Mississippi, Nebraska, Oklahoma and South Dakota, later joined it. Live Nation says the deal initially provided a $280 million fund for the states' damages and civil penalty claims, and that the six settling states' shares total about $18.6 million. James said on March 9 that the settlement “fails to address the monopoly at the center of this case.”

The proposed final judgment, filed on June 12, 2026, would run for eight years, with a monitor to oversee compliance. The Justice Department's Competitive Impact Statement sets out its main terms:

• Within 275 days, Ticketmaster must build a system that lets major concert venues using its back-end software sell tickets through rival ticketing marketplaces. Major concert venues are generally arenas and amphitheaters with 8,000 or more seats.
• Major concert venues with Ticketmaster contracts may use another ticketer for at least one event a year without penalty, and some may sell up to 20% of their tickets through other marketplaces. New fully exclusive contracts are capped at four years.
• At the large amphitheaters Live Nation owns, operates or controls, promoters and artists may sell up to 50% of their tickets through another seller, and Ticketmaster's service fees are capped at 15%.
• Live Nation must give up control of 13 large amphitheaters, end exclusive and preferred booking deals at major concert venues, and rent its large amphitheaters to artists whichever promoter they choose.
• Each violation involving a major concert venue carries a $5 million penalty.

The department said it chose the settlement because of the time, expense and risks of finishing the trial and any appeals, and because the deal also reaches the artist promotion and venue booking markets, where the court had granted Live Nation summary judgment over the department's objections. Under a stipulation the court entered on June 15, 2026, Live Nation must follow the deal's terms and timeframes while the court considers it.

Where the case stands

The federal deal becomes final only if the court finds it is in the public interest under the Tunney Act, after the comment period that opened with the July 6 notice. On October 31, 2026, the newest document on the Justice Department's case page was the Competitive Impact Statement dated June 29, 2026.

For the states that won, the next steps, as Live Nation described them in July, are the court's rulings on its post-trial motions and a remedies phase, in which the states propose remedies and the court assesses them, along with civil penalties under some state laws. On April 23, 2026, James and Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti wrote that the states would ask the court for remedies that “restore competition and deliver real relief to fans,” including “a breakup of Live Nation's monopoly.” The New York attorney general's office has published no later press release on the case.

For fans, the verdict does not by itself change how tickets are sold or priced. That depends on the remedies the court orders for the states, on whether it approves the federal settlement, and on any appeal.