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President-elect Trump has chosen Matt Gaetz to serve as his Attorney General. Speculation about the possibility of ending the U.S. Government’s antitrust action against Live Nation has already begun.
Gaetz has been a fierce supporter of the former President throughout his tenure in the U.S. House of Representatives. That’s predictably sparking fierce opposition, with critics roundly blasting Gaetz as unqualified.
Gaetz has regularly attacked the Justice Department and the FBI, leading to speculation that Gaetz may have been chosen to decimate the DOJ’s ability to lead investigations like the one into Live Nation’s antitrust issues. Indeed, staff at the DOJ could be decimated, with entire investigations and even departments gutted.
Unsurprisingly, staffers at the DOJ are aligned against the appointment and the house-cleaning that may ensue. “He is uniquely unqualified,” a Justice Department official told NBC News about the nomination.
Once President-elect Trump takes office, Matt Gaetz will still need to be formally nominated for the job. The Senate will need to confirm the position—and whether or not that institution will do so remains murky. Senate Republicans expressed bafflement at the nomination, while senior DOJ officials are undoubtedly hoping the Senate puts the brakes on the potential nomination per reports emerging Thursday morning.
So what does this mean for the live concert space — in particular Live Nation’s Ticketmaster-focused antitrust case?
With substantial changes ahead, Live Nation executives may be quietly crowing about their good fortune.
“We are hopeful that we’ll see a return to the more traditional antitrust approach, where the agencies have generally tried to find ways to solve problems they see with targeted remedies that minimize government intervention in the marketplace,” Live Nation President Joe Berchtold said during a Live Nation earnings call on Monday.
The DOJ first sued Live Nation over antitrust violations in May 2024 in the wake of high-profile Ticketmaster problems surrounding Taylor Swift’s oversubscribed tour (here’s a detailed look at the filing).
The suit alleges that Live Nation uses its position as the largest concert promoter, ticket seller, and venue owner to prevent competition from gaining a foothold in the live entertainment sector. A potential remedy of the issue under Biden’s Department of Justice was a break-up of Live Nation and Ticketmaster.
“Without getting into the specifics, at least some parts of the case, we think reflect a much more interventionist philosophy today than you’d expect of a Republican administration,” Berchtold continues in the earnings call.”Obviously, the request to break up Live Nation and Ticketmaster would be an example of that highly interventionist approach.”
Live Nation says it hopes to engage with the new administration sometime next year after its appointments within the DOJ are settled.
