Judge Denies DOJ’s Bid to See Emails Between Live Nation, Oak View Group in Antitrust Suit
Live Nation has successfully shielded legal strategy emails from the eyes of the Department of Justice in the ongoing antitrust lawsuit.
According to Law360, a Manhattan federal judge rejected the DOJ’s bid to see the emails between Live Nation lawyers and counsel for the arena operator Oak View Group. The decision was an order from U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian, who is presiding over the antitrust case, brought forth my the DOJ and 39 states as well as the District of Columbia.
The DOJ had sought to compel the production of 18 emails that Live Nation’s counsel exchanged with lawyers of the Oak View Group, as well as the company’s owners, Irving Azoff, and the private equity firm Silver Lake. While Live Nation agreed to produce the emails with Azoff, the entertainment giant argued that the 15 remaining emails with Oak View and Silver Lake discussed a joint legal strategy to deal with the DOJ’s antitrust suit — meaning they are privileged.
Judge Subramanian agreed on Wednesday, referring to case law.
“The motion to compel is denied because the documents were “made in the course of formulating a common legal strategy’ and it appears that the ‘parties understood that the communication [was] in the furtherance of the shared legal interest,” Subramanian said.
| READ: DOJ Alleges Oak View Group Colluded With Live Nation in Lawsuit |
Live Nation’s tie to the Oak View Group has been under scrutiny; Oak View Group was prominently featured in the complaints of anti-competitive conduct alleged in the lawsuit, with the government saying that the company chose to deliberately avoid competing with Live Nation, using Ticketmaster as its own ticketing property, and colluding on what business it pursued (sometimes at the direct behest of Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino.)
“Live Nation and Oak View Group have colluded and established a partnership to allocate business lines, avoid competing with each other, and chart a mutually beneficial plan to cement Live Nation’s dominance,” reads one section of the 100-plus page complaint filed in District Court for the Southern District of New York earlier this year. “Oak View Group’s experience and relationships with venues and artists make it particularly well-suited to be a real competitor to Live Nation in the United States concert promotion business.”
Instead, Live Nation and Oak View Group – which was co-founded by former Ticketmaster CEO and Live Nation chair Azoff and former AEG CEO Tim Leiweke in 2015 – chose to co-exist at the top of the live entertainment food chain, colluding to avoid allowing competition between the two to drive down prices for consumers or drive up payments to artists and others within the business.
| READ: ‘Unconscionable’: 9th Circuit Rejects Live Nation’s Arbitration Appeal |
Judge Subramanian’s decision is the latest news in the U.S. et al. v. Live Nation Entertainment Inc. et al. case. In October, a U.S. appeals court ruled to uphold a lower judge’s 2023 ruling in Heckman v. Live Nation Entertainment, which said Live Nation could not enforce contract provisions that required ticket buyers to arbitrate their claims instead of suing them in federal court. The appeals panel called the arbitration rules unfair to consumers, while “overtly” beneficial to defendants.
Live Nation has since asked a U.S. appeals court to undo the decision, claiming that the ruling has created “mass uncertainty” regarding mass arbitration.
A trial date is set for March 2026.
