After a chaotic week following the Justice Division’s mid-trial settlement with Stay Nation-Ticketmaster, the antitrust trial picked again up surprisingly easily on Monday — this time, with dozens of states main the case.
This isn’t the end result the states initially wished. Out of issues about having the ability to successfully take over the case and concern that the jury can be prejudiced by the shakeup, they requested a mistrial, which might have restarted the courtroom battle at an unknown future date. However an irritated Choose Arun Subramanian appeared prone to deny the request, and as soon as the states discovered learn how to retain the DOJ’s knowledgeable witness and have been in a position to rapidly rent up, they withdrew their mistrial movement. After the brand new faces have been launched, the trial restarted from roughly the place it left off greater than per week in the past, with testimony that included how Stay Nation deployed its “velvet hammer” towards rivals.
Subramanian welcomed the jurors again from their “spring break” and requested if that they had learn or encountered any information in regards to the case after they have been out, which is forbidden by the jury directions. They both shook their heads or remained silent. He reminded the jurors that the US had resolved its claims, as had a handful of states, however the remainder have been continuing to trial. Jurors shouldn’t make any inferences from the very fact these events are not within the case, he stated.
With the DOJ out of the image, the attorneys who questioned early witnesses have been gone, changed by a brand new staff co-led by Jonathan Hatch, an lawyer from the New York AG’s workplace, and Jeffrey Kessler of Winston & Strawn, who represented faculty athletes within the landmark Supreme Courtroom antitrust case towards the NCAA over compensation.
The states’ attorneys picked up questioning of Jay Marciano, the COO of AEG, a competitor to Stay Nation on a number of fronts. Whereas Hatch refreshed jurors on components of Marciano’s prior testimony, it was in any other case a reasonably normal examination. Marciano testified about ticketing fashions he prefers in Europe, the place a number of ticketing companies usually work at a venue, in contrast to the norm within the US the place venues have a tendency to simply accept unique ticketing contracts, usually from Ticketmaster.
On cross examination, Marciano spoke to an incident the jury heard about early within the trial: a name between the Barclays Heart’s then-CEO and Stay Nation CEO Michael Rapino, who responded to an try and abandon Ticketmaster by saying it could be more durable for the sector to get concert events with the brand new UBS Area close by. Whereas Barclays interpreted this as a menace to guard Ticketmaster, Marciano affirmed that it’s widespread as a live performance promoter to play venues towards one another to get extra favorable phrases, and that the UBS Area seemingly would appeal to artists away from Barclays as the brand new venue on the town.
Stay Nation’s president of US concert events, Robert Roux, addressed a separate allegation: that Stay Nation makes use of its broad management over US amphitheaters to keep up its monopoly energy, leaving no different actual choices for artists seeking to play giant out of doors venues. By means of Stay Nation’s personal enterprise displays, plaintiff lawyer Josh Hafenbrack demonstrated that the corporate made large strides to realize energy over 4 of the highest 5 amphitheaters within the US by ticket gross sales between 2016 and now. A 2018 presentation confirmed a largely highlighted record of the highest 100 amps worldwide, with the inexperienced highlights representing the 62 Stay Nation owned, operated, or solely booked venues on the time. Since then, Roux confirmed, the corporate has added a number of extra on that record.
Stay Nation denies it acted anticompetitively, and argues the states ignore other forms of venues that compete for a similar reveals. However Roux wrote in a 2015 electronic mail that many non-superstar artists are available in eager to play amphitheaters — a lot of which, proof proven in courtroom has advised, are managed or solely booked by Stay Nation. He additionally wrote that in these circumstances, there was “room for tighter negotiations and offers.”
“Both we’re collectively or we’re rivals”
Different emails described how Stay Nation thinks about its competitors when considering in any other case profitable offers. In a 2018 electronic mail trade, Rapino questioned why Stay Nation ought to give reveals to a promoter within the South it thought-about buying, Pink Mountain Leisure, earlier than it truly owned it. Roux wrote on the time that the message to Pink Mountain ought to be, “Both we’re collectively or we’re rivals.” He described the strategy as a “velvet hammer.” On the witness stand, Roux stated the message wasn’t meant to “antagonize” the promoter, however to be agency and ship a transparent message. In a separate trade that talked about Pink Mountain, Roux wrote that Stay Nation shouldn’t get “complacent” and “let small guys encroach from the sides.” Roux stated the remark was a normal one, and never particular to the promoter. Stay Nation acquired Pink Mountain in 2018.
In 2020, Rapino suggested Roux towards letting Radio Disney and live performance promoter Superfly right into a Stay Nation venue, even after they provided a contract that will yield at the least $400,000 in revenue for Stay Nation for renting out the amp. One government had raised a priority about permitting a third-party promoter into the amp, although the “cash is nice.”
Lastly, Roux testified that Stay Nation’s earnings per fan have multiplied lately, with profitability in giant amps, a key market within the case, rising greater than different venue classes between 2019 and 2024. Earlier than sure prices have been factored in, the corporate made $386 million in revenue from giant amps in 2024, almost triple the quantity it made in that section in 2019.
In addition to the delay within the case whereas the states’ staff sorted out its subsequent strikes absent the DOJ, there wasn’t a noticeable change within the circulate of trial and the way the brand new litigators operated, in comparison with the primary week of trial. The case continues to be anticipated to run a number of extra weeks, although either side stated they’ve labored to trim their witness lists to assist make up for misplaced time. Towards the tip of this week, one of many trial’s most high-profile witnesses is predicted to take the stand: Stay Nation’s CEO.