By Larry Neumeister, AP News | The President spoke personally with the chief executive of Live Nation in the weeks before the Justice Department abruptly settled its longstanding antitrust lawsuit against the entertainment giant and its Ticketmaster subsidiary, the company revealed in a court filing.
Lawyers for Live Nation told the court on Monday that Trump and the company’s CEO, Michael Rapino, spoke about the antitrust lawsuit in February, but didn’t discuss “substantive terms” of any potential settlement.
They also said that White House lawyers were involved in some of the numerous in-person meetings, video-conferences, telephone calls and written communications between the company and the Justice Department in February and March.
Just days into the March trial, the Justice Department announced a settlement that most states refused to join, saying it did not go far enough to curb the company’s dominance over concert venues and ticketing for live events though Ticketmaster.
The trial continued, and a jury concluded several weeks later that the company was a monopoly that cost concertgoers and sports fans.
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Read more on this potentially damaging development here:
https://apnews.com/article/live-nation-ticketmaster-antitrust-trial-trump-4fccb96e1672fb5335ac1af58c4c51e8
[Thanks to Alex Teitz for contributing this article! https://www.femmusic.com]
Photo: Live Nation Colorado Concerts | https://www.facebook.com/LiveNationCO
