After a five-week trial, the jury concluded that Live Nation and Ticketmaster unlawfully maintained and abused their monopoly power, preventing other ticketing services, venue owners, and concert promoters from successfully competing. The verdict found that fans have been overcharged for concert tickets at major concert venues across the country.
Connecticut Attorney General William Tong and 33 other attorneys general won the case after rejecting a settlement that the U.S. Department of Justice reached with Live Nation during the trial that began on March 2, 2026.
The jury specifically found that Ticketmaster unlawfully maintains a monopoly in the market for ticketing services at major concert venues. It also determined that Live Nation has a monopoly in the market for large amphitheaters used by artists and that Live Nation unlawfully requires artists who use the amphitheaters it owns to also use its event promotion services.
The original lawsuit, filed in May 2024 by Attorney General Tong, a coalition of 40 other states, and the DOJ, alleged that Live Nation's control over almost every aspect of the live event business—from venue ownership to event promotion to ticketing services through Ticketmaster—allowed it to raise costs for both fans and artists and suppress competition.
"Today's verdict confirms what fans, artists, venues and states like Connecticut have been saying for years—Live Nation and Ticketmaster built and maintained a system that shuts out competition and drives up prices," said Attorney General Tong. "Even after the Department of Justice reached a weak and ill-conceived settlement, Connecticut and a coalition of other states refused to back down because we knew that deal did not go far enough to fix a broken marketplace. This is a major step in restoring fairness in the live entertainment marketplace. We will continue pressing forward to ensure real accountability, meaningful reform, and a system that puts consumers first."
Having successfully proven their case on liability to the jury, Attorney General Tong and the coalition will argue for remedies and financial penalties at a separate bench trial.