Antitrust | The Verge

Here’s how Amazon’s price fixing allegedly drove up prices everywhere

2026-04-22T02:34:49-04:00

On Monday, California Attorney General Rob Bonta revealed the evidence of alleged price-fixing by Amazon. The state filed a request to the Supreme Court in February for a preliminary injunction to stop Amazon's behavior while the lawsuit it originally filed in 2022 proceeds, and is now making that 16-page document available, "largely unredacted." It lays out how Amazon allegedly schemed to raise other retailers' prices ahead of Prime Day, or worked with its vendors to make sure items available at a discount elsewhere were suddenly out of stock and unavailable for the lower price.

In response to a request for comment from The Verge, Amazon …

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Live Nation says it will fight monopoly suit loss

2026-04-17T05:53:29-04:00

After a jury found that Live Nation-Ticketmaster violated antitrust law on several counts, the company warns in a blog post that the verdict "is not the last word on this matter."

The company plans to renew a motion for the judge to issue a ruling against the states, claiming that they did not prove their case as a matter of law. It also awaits the court's decision on a separate motion to strike the testimony of one of the states' expert witness, whose analysis they say helped inform the jury's damages award. The jury found that Ticketmaster overcharged consumers $1.72 per ticket.

"Of course, Live Nation can and will appeal any unfavorable …

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Ticketmaster is an illegal monopoly, jury finds

2026-04-15T17:25:58-04:00

Live Nation-Ticketmaster is an illegal monopolist, a Manhattan jury found, according to Bloomberg. The jury found the company liable on three counts: illegally monopolizing the market for live event ticketing, amphitheaters, and tying its concert promotions business with the use of its venues, Bloomberg reported.

The verdict, reached after several days of deliberation, leaves the live entertainment giant open to a potential breakup - which was the stated goal of the lawsuit back when it was filed by the Biden administration's Department of Justice. Such an outcome would go far beyond the settlement that the Trump administration's DOJ reache …

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A jury is about to decide the fate of Ticketmaster

2026-04-12T12:07:07-04:00

Consumer complaints about Ticketmaster are so voluminous at state attorneys general offices that Pennsylvania's comes with an explicit plea for residents lodging a grievance about the company to be patient for a response. That kind of pressure has driven more than 30 states to push forward with claims that Live Nation-Ticketmaster illegally monopolized parts of the concert industry, even when the federal government settled its claims. Soon it will be up to a jury to decide if the ways Live Nation-Ticketmaster conducts its business is not just frustrating, but also illegal.

An antitrust trial that began March 2nd against Live Nation-Ticketm …

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The Trump administration’s antitrust honeymoon is over

2026-04-12T12:06:52-04:00

"It's not personal, Sonny, it's strictly business."

That quote was first delivered by mob boss Michael Corleone in The Godfather, but last Monday, it became the title of a speech by the Justice Department's acting antitrust chief Omeed Assefi. At a George Washington University event co-hosted with the publication MLex, Assefi described an agency firing on all cylinders, standing strong against bad corporate actors when warranted, but being open to reasonable negotiation to reach the strongest possible result.

Implicitly, Assefi was responding to months of complaints that his agency was bowing to corporate lobbyists and striking weak settle …

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Everyone hates Ticketmaster. Why’d Trump go easy on them?

2026-04-08T22:07:23-04:00

Today on Decoder, we’re talking about the major antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation, and what it might mean for antitrust and competition law in general now that the Justice Department under Trump has decided to settle its part of the case. That’s even as many states — including New York, California, and Texas — carry on the fight.

To break it all down, I’m joined by Verge senior policy reporter Lauren Feiner. Lauren is our resident court expert, by which I mean she’s been in the courtroom herself and chronicling this trial from the beginning.

You might be unfamiliar with the name Live Nation, but you’ve almost certainly encountered one of its many, many subsidiaries — the most infamous of these is called Ticketmaster. Longtime Decoder listeners might recall an episode we did on Ticketmaster back in 2023, in the wake of the Taylor Swift Eras Tour fiasco. That was when Ticketmaster’s website crashed during the first major rush for Eras Tour tickets. It was such a scandal, and Swifties are so politically powerful, that Live Nation was then dragged in front of Congress after widespread backlash spilled over into the mainstream.

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In 2024, the Department of Justice launched an antitrust lawsuit against the company, seeking to break it up — to split Ticketmaster off from Live Nation to try and combat predatory practices and increasing ticket fees.

This seemed like a real slam dunk case against Live Nation, regardless of political affiliation — nobody likes Ticketmaster, and breaking up the company would score political points for whoever finally pulled the trigger. It was also supposed to be a sign of strong bipartisan antitrust support.

The lawsuit was filed under the Biden administration. So even though Trump has since replaced Biden’s antitrust leaders, there was good reason to believe the new people in charge, in particular DOJ antitrust chief Gail Slater, would keep up the pressure, especially against tech companies. You might remember that JD Vance used to go around calling himself a fan of former FTC chief Lina Khan and calling for the breakup of Google.

But nothing about the second Trump admin is predictable. In early February, Gail Slater was pushed out. And then just one week into the Live Nation trial, part of that lawsuit came to a sudden and shocking end. The DOJ settled its portion of the case, extracting what many in the broader live event and music industries see as weak concessions. This has stirred up accusations of outright corruption on behalf of Trump himself, who reportedly intervened in the case directly to demand a speedy settlement.

But the lawsuit isn’t over yet. Because the case against Live Nation also included dozens of US states and districts, there is still a majority of state attorneys general who have refused to give up the fight. So Live Nation remains in court, fighting off accusations that it operates an illegal monopoly in the ticket business, which is illegally tied to its promotions business… which is illegally tied to its venues business.

But the DOJ settlement raises all sorts of complicated questions about where antitrust policy stands in the US today, especially with regard to ongoing cases against Big Tech companies like Apple and Amazon.

Lauren has been tracking all of these developments in detail — the trial, the settlement, and now the states continuing the fight — so let’s get into it.

If you’d like to read more about what we discussed in this episode, check out these links:

States’ anti-monopoly case against Live Nation continues Monday | The Verge
The Live Nation trial restarts with a ‘velvet hammer’ | The Verge
Live Nation settles government antitrust suit — and dodges a breakup | The Verge
The Live Nation settlement has industry insiders baffled | The Verge
Listen to the Live Nation CEO’s alleged threats to a concert venue | The Verge
The threats and bare-knuckle tactics of MAGA’s top antitrust fixer | The Wall Street Journal
The Trump admin just gave Live Nation the gift of a lifetime | The New York Times
How Live Nation allegedly terrorized the concert industry | The Verge
The US government is trying to break up Live Nation-Ticketmaster | The Verge (2024)
Taylor Swift vs. Ronald Reagan: the Ticketmaster story | Decoder (2023)

_{Questions or comments about this episode? Hit us up at decoder@theverge.com. We really do read every email!}

Lina Khan was right

2026-04-12T12:07:43-04:00

Hindsight is 20/20. | Image: The Verge / Getty Images

In 2021, the virtual world was the future of the internet. The pandemic had sequestered everyone indoors, heightening the appeal of digital communities. Facebook rebranded to Meta - a sign of the tech giant's investment in and commitment to the metaverse as the future of the internet. Despite losing billions in VR, Meta released an upgraded version of the Quest 2 headset and began focusing on launching a higher-end Quest Pro. At the end of the year, it announced its plan to plunk down a rumored $400 million to buy the independent VR gaming studio Within, maker of a popular fitness game called Supernatural. Less than five years later, however …

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The Live Nation trial restarts with a ‘velvet hammer’

2026-03-17T05:26:44-04:00

After a chaotic week following the Justice Department's mid-trial settlement with Live Nation-Ticketmaster, the antitrust trial picked back up surprisingly smoothly on Monday - this time, with dozens of states leading the case.

This isn't the outcome the states originally wanted. Out of concerns about being able to effectively take over the case and fear that the jury would be prejudiced by the shakeup, they requested a mistrial, which would have restarted the court battle at an unknown future date. But an irritated Judge Arun Subramanian seemed likely to deny the request, and once the states figured out how to retain the DOJ's expert witn …

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States’ anti-monopoly case against Live Nation continues Monday

2026-03-13T18:08:39-04:00

The Live Nation-Ticketmaster trial is back on. Dozens of states are expected to move forward with their claims against the company's alleged concert industry monopoly beginning on Monday, following a brief hearing on Friday.

The Justice Department and a handful of states have accepted settlements with the company, but the majority of the 40 state and district attorney general plaintiffs - as of now - are continuing their fight in court. The states that are pressing forward withdrew their motion for a mistrial, filed after the DOJ announced its settlement in court Monday, and showed up with new outside counsel to lead their trial team in the …

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The Live Nation settlement has industry insiders baffled

2026-03-15T12:00:50-04:00

Instead of moving forward with a jury trial against Live Nation-Ticketmaster as expected, the Justice Department announced a settlement Monday that omitted what used to be on the top of its wish list: a breakup.

What the DOJ did get was a series of concessions that some industry stakeholders found unsatisfying and even baffling. There are a few bright spots, those who spoke to The Verge said: a 15 percent cap on Ticketmaster service fees at Live Nation-owned or operated amphitheaters, for instance, and a pledge to give artists more transparency on their own ticket sales. But they remained unconvinced the deal would usher in the large-scale …

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