March 9 (Reuters) – Live Nation Entertainment (LYV) has reached a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice that allows the concert promoter to keep Ticketmaster, Politico reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The agreement requires the concert giant to pay about $200 million in compensation to participating countries and undergo sweeping structural reforms targeting its long-criticized control of ticketing, venues and artist promotions, the report added.
Shares of the California-based company rose about 9% in premarket trading following the report.
Fans and politicians have fiercely called for a review of Live Nation’s 2010 acquisition of Ticketmaster after the company made Taylor Swift fans queue online for hours while charging exorbitant prices for tickets to her 2022 Eras tour.
The U.S. Department of Justice and more than two dozen states filed a lawsuit in May 2024 calling for the dissolution of Live Nation, demanding the sale of Ticketmaster and accusing the companies of illegally inflating concert ticket prices and harming artists.
The case went to trial last week after a judge in February denied Live Nation’s request to dismiss the lawsuit.
According to the report, under the settlement agreement, Ticketmaster will be required to open part of its technology platform to competing ticketing companies, allowing third-party sellers such as SeatGeek and Eventbrite to list tickets directly through its system.
The Politico report adds that the agreement extends Live Nation’s long-term exclusive contracts – historically used to lock venues into its system – to four years, and venues will be allowed to allocate part of their ticket inventory to rival platforms.
Live Nation earlier called the accusations baseless and said the outcome of the trial would not reduce ticket prices for fans.
Live Nation, Ticketmaster and the Justice Department did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
(Reporting by Kritika Lamba and Angela Christy in Bengaluru; Editing by Sumana Nandy, Mrigank Dhaniwala and Krishna Chandra Eluri)