Live Nation and its subsidiary Ticketmaster lost a major court battle April 15, but have music fans actually won anything?
Following a lengthy trial brought on by the Department of Justice and 39 states plus the District of Columbia in 2024, a New York jury found Live Nation operated an illegal monopoly via anti-competitive practices which hobbled rival ticket sellers, restricted artists’ access to venues and more. For the average concertgoer, the jury found this led to higher prices across genres and markets, from the biggest acts like Taylor Swift and Harry Styles to up-and-comers.
Now that the verdict is in, will fans get some relief? It could be a while before this verdict truly affects the marketplace, if at all, and concert season 2026 certainly won’t look any cheaper. For starters, the judge in the case must decide on penalties for Live Nation, and the company plans to appeal.
What Experts Say About Future Ticket Prices
“Short of that, the verdict would definitely lower ticket prices,” Anthony DeCurtis, contributing editor at Rolling Stone, tells USA TODAY. “The more venues and the more ticket agencies that are available, the more competition there will be and, inevitably, the lower the costs. Even artists are likely to approve of this verdict.”
Eventually, the ruling “could also result in better customer service generally, such as greater transparency on pricing,” explains Erik Hovenkamp, a law professor and economist at Cornell Law. “The DOJ’s case basically argues that Live Nation has cut off ticketing rivals from most opportunities to do business, preventing them from growing into significant competitors. With those barriers to competition removed, competition should open up.”
But how much could increased competition impact pricing? Will ticket prices see a significant decrease, or will it simply mean more choices for consumers?
“We might see prices slow down a bit,” says Dave Brooks, a veteran music industry journalist who writes for Puck Media and hosts the Decibel and Docket podcast. “It’s highly unlikely that concerts will be cheaper, in say, 2029 than they are in 2026, due to inflation and high demand, but ticket price increases are likely to slow down.”
Could Amazon or Target Sell Concert Tickets?
The potential dissolution of a Live Nation/Ticketmaster monopoly could open doors to retailers not currently associated with live music events.
“In the future, a fan might have multiple options to buy primary tickets for a major concert like Sabrina Carpenter or BTS. So instead of fans having to log into Ticketmaster to buy tickets, they might be able to buy tickets directly from Amazon, or Target or a new ticketing company. That could create more competition in the retail market and slightly push down prices, in theory, but not in a significant or noticeable way,” says Brooks.
But much of this still hinges on what comes out of the appeals process, and how strongly a judge rules against Live Nation. Whether that leads to a forced breakup between Live Nation and Ticketmaster or other injunctions remains to be seen, says Hovenkamp: “Live Nation has a history of promising to behave and then not following through, which might lead the court to conclude that ‘behavioral remedies’ aren’t going to cut it. I would expect the court to impose some strong injunctions prohibiting the conduct at issue in the case.”
The Ticket Scalping Problem Remains Unsolved
There was one major ticket buyers’ headache not addressed in this case: secondary markets known as reseller sites, where fans pay steeper prices to see their favorite acts after tickets instantly vanish from Ticketmaster after a sale begins.
“I do think there’s a good chance that ticket scalping gets regulated out of existence in the next few years,” says Brooks. “The U.K. recently banned the resale of concert tickets over face value and a number of state legislatures are considering statewide bans, including California and New York. This type of legislation could potentially eliminate scalping and the huge markups consumers pay on sites like StubHub and SeatGeek.”
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