The federal judge presiding over the Justice Department's sweeping antitrust case against Live Nation believes the trial could begin as early as March 2026, according to recent federal court filings.
Judge Arun Subramanian explained Thursday (June 27) at the first preliminary hearing in the case that he hoped jury selection could begin this month, although he stopped short of setting a specific date.
One of the first issues for Subramanian, who was appointed to the federal seat by President Joe Biden in 2023, is set to rule on a planned motion by Live Nation to transfer the case from the Southern District of New York to the federal court in Washington, where Live Nation's 2010 merger with Ticketmaster was first approved. Subramanian said he believed his court could properly preside over the case, but that he would fully consider the advice.
Before being appointed to the federal bench, Subramanian was a partner at the litigation firm Susman Godfrey LLP, which is currently representing Live Nation in the Astroworld 2021 festival class action lawsuit. Subramanian did not work on that case.
Attorneys for the government said in a filing Tuesday (July 25) that they plan to pursue additional claims against Live Nation, noting that the new claims may include information Live Nation's lawyers have characterized as highly confidential and may request from the courts to seal.
Attorneys for the government “do not believe that any of the information at issue merits sealing or overcomes the presumption of public access to court documents,” the filings explain, noting that if Live Nation does not budge, the government will ask the judge to rule on the matter.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) lawyers also complained that Live Nation's lawyers delayed discovery requests and failed to “fully comply with any of the United States' three pre-complaint political investigation requests” dating back to October 2022.
“It took almost a year for the defendants to begin producing custodial documents,” the filing states, noting that “their responses to many specifications remain incomplete today.”
Attorneys for Live Nation called the government's discovery claim false, noting that “since October 2022, Defendants have spent over 200,000 attorney hours reviewing documents, produced over 600,000 documents from nearly 70 custodians, submitted over 33 million data observations, submitted dozens of written responses, and provided investigative deposition testimony from three high-ranking executives in response to Plaintiffs' inquiries. In addition, the DOJ has access to nearly two million documents produced by the defendants during previous investigations.”
Live Nation's lawyers added that they want “any documents, data or testimony Plaintiffs obtained from third parties during their investigation” by July 22, 2024.
Live Nation also disputes the government's unusual request for a jury trial rather than a judge determining the verdict. “If it happens, it would be the first jury trial in a government monopoly case,” the company's lawyers wrote.
In addition to Live Nation, the government also says it plans to issue more than 100 third-party subpoenas to “ticket holders, promoters, ticket brokers, venues, venue management companies, artists and artists' agents and managers.”
Live Nation declined to comment for this story.
Live Nation is represented by a longtime attorney and judge Timothy L. O'Mara and Alfred C. Pfeiffer, both partners at Latham and Watkins. Pfeiffer is the former co-chair of the firm's Antitrust & Competition Practice. Ticketmaster is represented by David R. Marriott with Cravath, who successfully represented Illumina before the Federal Trade Commission and secured a victory for the Louis Dreyfus Company in 2022 against the DOJ's efforts to block the sale of Imperial Sugar to US Sugar.
The government is represented by Bonnie Sweeney, who joined the DOJ in 2022. Sweeney previously served as a partner at the San Francisco firm Hausfeld where she co-chaired the US antitrust practice group. In 2023, she was named the California Bar Association's Antitrust Attorney of the Year.
