Live Nation Settlement Shows 'Disrespect for Fans'

Amy Klobuchar criticizes Live Nation deal: “All signs point to a backroom deal” Amy Klobuchar criticized the Justice Department's deal with Live Nation and said it will do "little to reduce costs, preserve venues or protect fans" in a new interview with Rolling Stone. Hours after the surprise deal was announced, the Minnesota senator expressed frustration with both the terms of the deal and the way it was reached. Specifically, he cited the unexpected dismissal of Justice Department antitrust director Gail Slater, who seemed eager to pursue the Live Nation case, a month before the trial was to begin. "Every sign points to a secret deal," Klobuchar says, "done without the knowledge of antitrust lawyers and against the wishes of people who were trying to do the right thing and then were forced to leave. And certainly done against the wishes of fans." Live Nation has spent much of the last year intensely lobbying the Trump administration over the lawsuit. Most notably, the company named Ric Grenell, a former Trump crony and current president of the Kennedy Center, to its board of directors last May. A recent report in The American Prospect also indicated that Live Nation's lobbying team included former Trump aide and campaign manager Kellyanne Conway and MAGA influencer and lawyer Mike Davis (who also reportedly helped pressure the Justice Department to drop its challenge to the $14 billion merger involving Hewlett Packard and Juniper Networks). “This case was one of the largest monopolies the world has ever known,” Klobuchar says, “having 80 percent of the primary ticket sales market for major concert venues, 40 to 50 major amphitheaters, 60 percent of promotional revenue at major concert venues, and an enormously high percentage of major sporting events—when you think about that monopoly and what this administration has been doing, [the settlement] was no surprise.” Still, the settlement took some by surprise, including the trial judge himself, Justice Arun Subramanian, who was surprised to learn that while a settlement was reached last week, the court was not alerted until Monday. "I agree with the judge who said it showed a complete lack of respect for the court and the jury," Klobuchar says. “I would add one more thing: it shows an absolute lack of respect towards the fans and towards the people who go to the concerts.” (A representative for Live Nation did not immediately respond to a request for comment.) Klobuchar says the deal contains “some good things,” such as the four-year limit on Ticketmaster's exclusivity contracts with venues (something she has sought to address in federal legislation). But he was adamant that anything short of separating Live Nation and Ticketmaster wasn't enough. “Every time a Justice Department or an administration has done something like this, they have avoided it and grown even bigger,” Klobuchar says. "The only way to see a future for the competition in ticket sales, venues and promotion would be to split them up." The senator also dismissed concerns that if the Justice Department had forced Live Nation to divest from Ticketmaster, the company would have been acquired by some private equity firm that would have made it worse off. "Those arguments were used in many company breakups, and it simply wasn't the case," he says. He referenced the breakup of the Bell System and AT&T in the early 1980s, calling it “very successful for everyone in terms of reducing costs and creating innovations in telephone service.” As for what's next, Klobuchar noted that Congress can continue to provide oversight, joking: "And if you think oversight doesn't matter, it certainly did at Kristi Noem's hearing last week." (Noem was fired from the Department of Homeland Security a few days later.) Klobuchar plans to introduce new legislation