On Monday, Democrats in the both the House and Senate called a hearing to examine Live Nation’s March 9 settlement agreement with the Department of Justice. Widely derided as a "slap on the wrist" — the agreement landed like a grenade inside the coalition of state attorneys general who had sued the company alongside the federal government for alleged monopolistic practices in how it shaped and grew the American live entertainment industry over the past two decades.
The surprise settlement was the subject of a bicameral spotlight forum held Monday in Washington, led by Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Ranking Member of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Titled "Corruption Takes Center Stage: How the Live Nation – Ticketmaster Settlement Threatens Antitrust Enforcement," the hearing painted an elaborate portrait of a controversial legal settlement that witnesses described as compromised from the inside and vulnerable to lobbyists with White House connections.
The Live Nation deal, they argued, is not an isolated incident. It is a symptom of larger problems at Trump’s Department of Justice and its antitrust enforcement arm.
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