BREAKING: MAJOR RULING in Ticketmaster-Livenation case

I'm joined now by California Attorney. General Rob Bonta. Thanks so much for. joining me. My pleasure, Brian. Good to see you. again. So, we have a huge win here, not. just on behalf of the people of. California, but really a bipartisan. coalition. Can you explain the win that. you just notched in court? Yeah, we have been in court in the. Southern District of New York. We've been multiple states across the. country, a bipartisan group of states. suing Ticketmaster Live Nation for. anti-competitive conduct conduct that.

violates antitrust law. And today the. verdict came in and. the jury found for us on every. item that was presented to them. It was. yes down the line on the verdict form, 11 pages of yeses. holding Ticketmaster Live Nation. accountable, holding them liable for illegal conduct. So, for for folks who. sat at a computer and tried to buy a. ticket to a concert and. thought that the price was too high or. something was fishy and you know,

decided to to purchase it anyway, but. weren't happy or decided maybe to take a. pass. It wasn't just fishy what was. happening, it was illegal. And so this. was unlawful conduct on the on the part. of Ticketmaster Live Nation that hurt. our economy, that hurt fans and. consumers, that hurt performers, that. hurt other businesses. And it wasn't. Ticketmaster Live Nation acting because. they were better they had a better. product or a better design, it's cuz. they cheated. They acted unlawfully,

they acted illegally, that's what the. jury found today. So, a really important. moment and some of the backdrop is the. United States Department of Justice was. part of this case. until they weren't. They dropped out of. the case right before trial, they. settled with Ticketmaster Live Nation on. very weak terms. This US DOJ, this federal government. is soft on corporations that act. illegally to raise prices and this is. another example of it, but the states. continued in our case, we went all the.

way through trial, we made our case to the jury and justice. was done today and Ticketmaster Live. Nation is being held accountable. Well, look, I know that there's a lot of. people out there who have bought tickets. or been forced, I should say, to buy. tickets because of the monopolistic. behavior of these of these entities, been forced to buy tickets on. Ticketmaster Live Nation, paid exorbitant fees, recognizing that. this conduct is now illegal. What kind. of remedy is there for people who have. been impacted? That's the next step. So, this was the. liability stage where a jury decided.

that Ticketmaster Live Nation was liable. all across the board on all the. questions presented to them. Next is the. remedy phase where a judge will decide. what happens next, what remedies will. match the liability found by the jury. It could take a lot of different forms, it could be money damages, it could be. behavioral conditions, it could be a. breakup of the monopoly like a breakup. of. an we call it a a divestiture a rolling. off as a separate entity of. Ticketmaster, for example. That's.

something that that we have asked for. It could be some combination of those. things, it could be something else as. well. So, we will find out in the coming. weeks what the remedy is. There could be the potential for. restitution for victims as well, money. back in pockets. And but all that is. TBD, still to be determined in the weeks. ahead. Now, interestingly, this case was. initially being spearheaded by the. Department of Justice. If I'm not. mistaken, this started in the Biden Department of.

Justice under Okay. So, this this this. initially. you know, launched from the Biden DOJ. Trump's team will talk about what. Trump's team opted to do and why the. onus ultimately fell to you and a. bipartisan coalition of attorneys. general. Yeah, you know, it's been unfortunately the brand of. this United States Department of Justice. and the Federal Trade Commission, the. two entities in the federal government. that do antitrust work, to depart and.

to retreat from the typical traditional. role of those entities to do, you know, fair, firm, objective antitrust. enforcement. That's been what multiple. administrations, both Republican and. Democrat, have done over many, many. decades, but this administration is is. different. They are not enforcing. antitrust law, they are picking winners. and losers, they're trying to. allow deals to go through when it helps. their friends, their favorites. There's. a specific case, HP Juniper, where we.

think there was improper corrupt. lobbying. and other behavior that was that was. involved. So, here the United States DOJ. on the eve of trial decided to settle. They settled on terms that we thought. were weak, it was a combination of. monetary damages and some behavioral. changes and we thought it was just. wasn't acceptable that it wasn't close. to. what Ticketmaster Live Nation should be. required to do. And so we decided to to. forge ahead, go to trial. Now we have. this historical groundbreaking jury. verdict and and next we'll have to get.

the remedy that matches that liability. You know, you you had mentioned that this was a. bipartisan coalition of attorneys. general. What does it say that even some. of these, you know, diehard right-wing. AGs decided to join in on this case even. when, you know, when Trump's DOJ. wouldn't. What does that say about where. this DOJ is trying to put itself? And look, you know, to that point, some. of these Republican AGs became aware.

that they were under pressure from the. White House, you know, from Trump to not. continue with the case. But to your. point, they continued anyway despite the. political pressure because they thought. that it was so clear. it was so egregious that the illegal. conduct was was so reprehensible that. Ticketmaster Live Nation was involved in. that they had to they had to continue on. in the case. And and not many things are. unfortunately bipartisan these days, I. wish more were. We are bipartisan with. our Republican colleagues when it comes. to the mental health harms of social. media platforms and then and we still.

are in some of the antitrust cases, not. all. This is one of them. So, I'm I'm. glad we were able to work together. But. you know, this is a case in which. Ticketmaster Live Nation executives were. literally laughing at consumers saying. that they were robbing them blind and. that these people are so stupid as they. jacked up their prices and. um really deteriorated their their. quality and their experience. And you. know, they took people's money to the. bank, they they acted illegally, they. took advantage of them, they ripped. people off. It was big corporations.

ripping people off, doing it unlawfully, it was wrong, they deserve to be held. accountable and today they were. What. could the punishment for. Ticketmaster Live Nation look like? And. I'm not talking about a remedy for the. consumers, I'm talking about like, you. know, we've heard about the prospect of. breaking this company up. What you know, it might be too soon for you to answer. this question or you might not be able. to do it because, you know, this is. still all ongoing. litigation and prosecution, but but in.

this kind of a scenario, what could be. on the table? A couple different things. And so the. the Ticketmaster Live Nation business. model involves. um. promoting performers, representing. venues, and then also selling tickets. through Ticketmaster. And they generally. try to tie all those things together and. and leverage one with the other. >> Right. And just basically become. completely vertically integrated. Absolutely. And so if you're if you're. you're a performer,

they'll say you have to use us to. promote you if you want access to all. these great venues that we have. Yeah. >> Or if you're a venue, they say if you. want this, you know, class A highly. sought-after performer, we'll get you that performer, but then. you got to use Ticketmaster. We could part of the remedy can be they. cannot require that anymore. They can't. have those tying arrangements, those. conditions, those requirements in their. business dealings. It could also be a. breakup, having Ticketmaster. roll roll off of the Ticketmaster Live.

Nation business entity and and be a. separate entity. There could be non-exclusive. arrangements where, you know, not just. Ticketmaster is selling tickets for a. concert, but others are as well. You. know, SeatGeek and others can can. compete and. be part of this the ticket sales so. that, you know, everyday people aren't. forced to pay these sky-high prices. with really terrible experiences. And. there's the monetary damages as well. So, a whole sort of menu of options that.

we're going to put before the judge. We think some combination of those, maybe all of those, are are appropriate. you know, based on what Ticketmaster Live Nation. decided to do in terms of their illegal. conduct. Okay, so we have and I'm going. to finish off with this. We have this. ruling here by a judge. At the same. time, you know, we have seen during the. Trump administration. a ton of consolidation. Right now we're. in the midst of watching even more. consolidation. in the entertainment industry. Does this.

feel like a watershed moment in terms of. antitrust? Do you think that we might. not have gotten there yet as the Trump. administration continues to green light. projects where. financially or ideologically it benefits. them? Like where where where does this. what does this moment say to you in. terms of antitrust more broadly? And I. ask that because. I understand that antitrust isn't always. the sexiest topic, but the reality is. that affordability is and this directly. impacts that. So, I presume that that the way people's.

eyes glaze glaze over when we've spoken. about antitrust in the in the past isn't. going to isn't going to be that way. moving forward because, you know, people. are tired of getting over by by. the Ticketmaster Live Nations of the. world. They're tired of getting. over by monopolistic entities in grocery. chains or healthcare companies or. pharmaceutical companies as or or. entertainment companies as we see more. and more consolidation in this space. And so, does this moment feel like a. watershed moment or do you think that.

there's still more work to do as we as. we move you know deeper into the Trump. administration? You got it 100% right Brian. Anti-trust. enforcement promotes affordability. Anti-trust enforcement is affordability. So you know it affects people's. pocketbooks, their ability to afford. their lives and so it seems like. something. you know complicated and confusing and. and hard to access but in the end it's. about making sure that the world. is affordable for for people and people. you know channeling your your anger.

Brian, they're angry. They should be. They don't want to get over by. corporations. They they deserve better. They deserve fairness. They don't They. deserve corporations that don't cheat. and don't act illegally and that's why. this is a watershed shed moment. This is. a historical moment. This is momentous. because the US DOJ and the FTC the. federal government has typically played. this role. They're not playing it. anymore to to do. traditional firm fair anti-trust. enforcement and now states states have. stepped into the breach and people. wondered what can states do? Do they. have the resources? Do they have the.

talent? I'm used to the federal government doing. it. I don't even know if states have the. authority. We showed today all those. things the answer is yes. We have the. resources. We have the talent. We have. the legal authority. We did it. We held. a monopoly accountable for being an. illegal monopoly for screwing over. consumers. We held them accountable. today. And so and we're we're we're in. the midst of doing the same when it. comes to Nexstar Tegna that merger for. broadcast television.

That will raise people's. satellite prices and their cable prices. if that goes through. We're moving to. block that. We're looking at Paramount. Warner Brothers. We're challenging the HP Juniper case. States are because the federal. government will not and so we showed. today. the. the muscularity of our work the power. and potency of our actions. The ability. to get an. critical important result on behalf of. Americans on behalf of consumers on.

behalf of fans in this case when the. federal government. will not. Well I appreciate you know I. speak on behalf of myself and everybody. watching. I appreciate you got you. stepping up and and doing the work where. where on behalf of consumers where. Donald Trump was perfectly content to. let them walk with a slap on the wrist. You know showing in effect that it's. people like you. who are who are actually delivering the. affordability agenda that Trump ran on. which we now recognize was basically. just window dressing at this point. So.

with that said Attorney General Bonta, thanks so much for taking the time for. the work you're doing. Grateful for the opportunity. Thanks. Brian. Good to see you. >> [music].