A Manhattan jury has found that Live Nation, the entertainment giant behind Ticketmaster, operated as an illegal monopoly and systematically overcharged fans.
Away from the financial story, this is a significant lesson on how market monopolies can negatively impact the customer experience.
The verdict came after a seven-week trial and four days of deliberations, with jurors finding the company liable on three counts:
- Illegally monopolizing the live event ticketing market
- Illegally monopolizing the amphitheater market
- Improperly tying its concert promotion business to its venue operations
The jury also determined that Ticketmaster overcharged customers by $1.72 per ticket over several years – a figure that will now serve as the basis for calculating total damages.
Jeff Jackson, Attorney General of North Carolina, was one of the AGs who rejected a mid-trial DOJ settlement and pushed the case through to its conclusion.
He took to LinkedIn to share his reaction to the verdict:
“We rejected their deal, finished the trial, and now a jury has found that they’ve been operating as an illegal monopoly and used their power to unlawfully raise ticket prices on you.
“This is a huge win for consumers and artists, but it also sends a message that we can still take on monopolies – and win.”
New York Attorney General Letitia James, who led the bipartisan coalition of 34 states, also shared her thoughts on the verdict:
“For far too long, Live Nation and Ticketmaster have taken advantage of fans and artists by raising prices for tickets and stifling any competition that threatened their power,” she wrote in her official press release.
“A jury found what we have long known to be true: Live Nation and Ticketmaster are breaking the law and costing consumers millions of dollars in the process.”
The CX Cost of Monopoly Power
Beyond the legal drama, the verdict carries a specific meaning for CX professionals. What a jury has now confirmed in a court of law is something consumers and industry observers have argued for years: that the absence of real competition doesn’t just affect pricing; it shapes the entire service culture around it.
Ticketmaster controls more than 70% of major concert venues through exclusive ticketing contracts, while Live Nation holds around 80% of the major amphitheater market.
Artists touring outdoor venues had no practical option but to go through Live Nation, and fans had no meaningful alternative.
When there is nowhere else to go, the commercial incentive to invest in the customer experience erodes.
That cultural reality surfaced during the trial. Court filings revealed Slack messages from a Ticketmaster employee describing customers as “so stupid” and discussing “robbing them blind.”
For anyone working in CX, those messages are a blunt reminder of what a captive customer base can do to internal standards over time.
CX Today has previously examined how Ticketmaster’s structural and operational choices contributed to its reputation for poor customer experience – from its handling of peak demand events to its approach to fee transparency.
As that piece noted, “trust can’t be cached or containerized. It must be earned via systems that deliver, communication that’s honest, and respect for customers’ time and money.”
The verdict suggests that without competitive pressure, those conditions were never really in place.
The Taylor Swift Eras Tour collapse in 2022 put much of this into public view, forcing Ticketmaster to apologize to Swift and her fans at a U.S. Senate hearing and triggering the regulatory scrutiny that eventually led here.
What Happens Next
Live Nation has signaled the fight isn’t over. In a statement, the company said: “The jury’s verdict is not the last word on this matter,” pointing to pending motions and a request to have certain expert damages testimony rejected.
The case now moves to a remedies phase, where Judge Arun Subramanian will determine how the company’s grip on the industry gets addressed.
A forced breakup of Live Nation and Ticketmaster remains on the table, alongside broader measures intended to open the market to rival ticketing platforms and venues.
But will it really lead to a better customer experience?
If the courts are able to introduce rulings that lead to genuine market competition, CX could become a powerful differentiator. Platforms will need to earn customers rather than simply hold them.
Fee transparency, service quality under peak demand, and the overall fan experience will start to carry commercial weight in ways they largely haven’t.
For the CX industry, the remedies trial is worth watching just as closely as the verdict itself.
