Raskin, Blumenthal to Set Monday Congressional Hearing on Live Nation–Ticketmaster Monopoly and DOJ Settlement

The May 18 bicameral forum will feature California Attorney General Rob Bonta, independent venue owners, legal experts and artists as lawmakers scrutinize the DOJ settlement while states pursue stronger remedies.

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Rep. Jamie Raskin and Sen. Richard Blumenthal will lead a bicameral forum Monday examining Live Nation and Ticketmaster’s market power and the Department of Justice settlement that ended the federal government’s antitrust case against the company.

The forum, titled “Corruption Takes Center Stage: How the Live Nation–Ticketmaster Settlement Threatens Antitrust Enforcement,” is scheduled for Monday, May 18, at 3:30 p.m. ET in SD-G50 of the Senate Dirksen Office Building.

Raskin, ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, and Blumenthal, ranking member of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, will hear testimony from artists, legal experts, independent venue owners and state officials who have continued to press the case after rejecting the DOJ’s proposed settlement.

Blumenthal has long been a critic of Live Nation Entertainment/Ticketmaster’s business practices and outsized market power. He was a supporter of the BOSS and SWIFT Act legislation proposed by the late Rep. Bill Pascrell, and advocated for DOJ action against Live Nation for years before the filing of the 2024 lawsuit that ended in a guilty verdict against the entertainment giant last month, and was one of many Senators to raise public concerns regarding the settlement of that lawsuit by the Trump DOJ, and how that deal was reached.

“The Trump Administration’s anti-consumer settlement with Live Nation simply solidified a system already stacked against fans, venues, and artists,” Sen, Blumenthal said in materials shared with TicketNews about the hearing.

“The Live Nation and Ticketmaster monopoly is one of many sweetheart deals the Trump Administration has blessed by prioritizing corruptly connected companies over consumers. I look forward to hearing directly from some of the people who are on the front line of this fight – from artists to law enforcers,”

Expected witnesses include California Attorney General Rob Bonta, former Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust Roger Alford, Tampa venue owner Tom DeGeorge of The Crowbar, Chicago promoter Jerry Mickelson of Jam Productions, and Franz Nicolay of The Hold Steady.

The forum comes as the antitrust fight has split into two tracks: the DOJ’s proposed settlement, now headed toward Tunney Act review in federal court, and a state-led push for stronger remedies following a jury finding that Live Nation and Ticketmaster violated antitrust law on monopoly and tying claims.

“The Justice Department’s weak settlement and corrupt bargain fail to meet the moment and raise serious questions about whether our antitrust laws are being enforced with the independence and rigor the public demands,” Raskin says. “We’re here to lay out the facts and make clear that concentrated corporate power isn’t safe without real accountability. Meaningful antitrust enforcement must be restored to protect competition, fairness, and consumers in a democratic society.”

The hearing adds to growing scrutiny of a settlement that has drawn criticism from lawmakers, consumer advocates and state attorneys general. The DOJ under former President Joe Biden sued Live Nation in 2024 alongside a coalition of states, alleging the company used its control over promotion, venues and ticketing to suppress competition.

That lawsuit was continued under the second Trump administration, but a clear and widespread pattern emerged of the entertainment giant cosying up to Trump insiders to end-around the antitrust enforcement effort.

Beginning with a substantial donation to Trump’s inaugural committee, the campaign involved retaining a number of Trump allies to lobby on its behalf including Mike Davis, Kellyanne Conway and Brian Ballard. In May of 2025, Richard Grenell, a trusted Trump confidant and current Kennedy Center president, was added to Live Nation’s Board in what industry executives called “the most thinly veiled attempt to influence a legal proceeding that I’ve ever seen.” June saw Live Nation’s announcement of a major investment in venues that lavished credit on Trump’s policies – though a review by TicketNews showed that almost every single project was years in the making before Trump returned to office.

Antitrust Chief Gail Slater departed the DOJ just before the trial began – as rumors swirled that a settlement was imminent. After the settlement was announced it was confirmed that Live Nation CEO and other corporate executives met with senior Trump officials to hammer out the settlement as the trial was getting underway – without the knowledge of the DOJ antitrust lawyers litigating the case.

The settlement is now before U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian. At a May 7 conference, the court signaled the Tunney Act process should proceed, with a hearing likely later this year, while non-settling states prepare for a separate remedies phase after the guilty verdict that will likely last well into 2027.

Live Nation has vowed that the guilty verdict was “not the last word” in the case, and still has active motions seeking to undermine evidence and testimony that led to that verdict. It has promised to continue to fight any proposed remedies outside of the agreed-to DOJ settlement and appeal any that are applied by the court should its motions fail.

Bonta has already played a direct role in the antitrust case against Live Nation. California is among the states that continued pursuing claims, and the attorney general has remained active on ticketing issues, including a recent inquiry into 2026 World Cup ticket sales after fans alleged seat categories changed post-purchase.

Alford was an official in the DOJ under Slater until he was fired in 2025 after objecting to an allegedly politically motivated settlement of a separate antitrust lawsuit by Trump administration figures. After that, he warned that Live Nation was pursuing a similar tactic, including the hiring of the same lobbyist – Mike Davis. “Live Nation and Ticketmaster have paid a bevy of cozy MAGA friends to roam the halls of the [Antitrust Division] in defense of their monopoly abuses.,” he warned lawmakers in the wake of the purge that cost him his job. He later testified that Davis had told Ms. Slater: “If you don’t approve [the Hewlett Packard Enterprises] settlement, I will destroy you. I will destroy your job at the DOJ.” Davis later admitted in sworn testimony that he recommended Ms. Slater’s firing to “anyone who would listen,” including former Attorney General Pam Bondi. Slater was ousted from her position on February 12.

Mickelson is a longtime concert promoter based in Chicago. He has given testimony multiple times on the dangerous market power that Live Nation has rolled up – including at a 2023 Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing called in the wake of the Taylor Swift Eras Tour mess that supercharged the public outcry that helped lead to the DOJ antitrust lawsuit. He had also warned against that very market power being inevitable before a Senate subcommittee in 2009 before the merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster was approved.

Monday’s forum will not determine the fate of the DOJ settlement or the states’ case. But it offers critics another public venue to argue the federal government abandoned structural remedies just as states were advancing the underlying monopoly claims.

For Live Nation, the timing is challenging. The company has already been found liable in the state-led case, its DOJ settlement remains subject to court approval, and non-settling states are preparing to argue that stronger relief is needed to restore competition in concert promotion and primary ticketing.