Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino faced cross-examination on Thursday at a New York antitrust trial connected to the Justice Department’s lawsuit against Live Nation and its ticketing subsidiary, Ticketmaster, as attorneys for 33 states and the District of Columbia sought remedies. Rapino, who has led the company since it formed and testified as a defense witness, portrayed the live-events industry as competitive and described Live Nation’s business model as an effort to serve artists and fans rather than to suppress rivals.
Rapino said he was “very proud” of what he characterized as Live Nation’s transformation of a fragmented industry over the past two decades. He said the company merged with Ticketmaster in 2010 and told the court that other companies now try to emulate parts of the approach. He testified that, in his view, Wall Street doubted whether the public company could deliver steady growth and profits because of limited profit margins in concert promotion and ticketing.
As states’ lawyer Jeffrey Kessler questioned him, Rapino continued to frame Live Nation as operating in a setting with tight margins rather than as one insulated from competition. Rapino said the company owns or controls 40 amphitheaters and that, he said, those would lose $150 million annually if Live Nation could not profit from food and beverage sales, parking and other amenities such as lawn chairs. Kessler then tried to push Rapino on whether the company’s control of venues and related ticketing arrangements restricted customer choice.
At one point in the testimony, Kessler raised messages from 2022 that involved a Live Nation ticketing employee using internal company communications to mock customers and discuss monetizing amenities. Rapino called the language “disgusting” and said it was “not the way we operate.” He testified that he learned about the communications only after they were made public in the litigation and that he planned to address it “this week.”
Rapino also responded to questions about whether the employee would face discipline. He said his company tends “to give employees a break” and added that “I heard he’s apologized.” The employee, Benjamin Baker—now head of ticketing for Venue Nation, a unit that includes Live Nation amphitheaters—testified earlier in the trial and described the communications as “very immature and unacceptable,” according to the courtroom record summarized by AP.
Kessler later confronted Rapino with a dispute tied to Ticketmaster’s 2022 effort to sell Taylor Swift tickets, including an explanation in which outdated systems were cited as contributing to a widely criticized rollout. Rapino told the court that his company’s earlier explanation—“We thought demand overloaded the system”—turned out “not to be true.” He said a cyberattack was to blame.
The cross-examination also included questions about whether Live Nation threatened to reduce the number of concerts a venue could get if the venue did not use Ticketmaster. Rapino said such threats were unusual, telling the court that in 15 years there had been “a few of those wild emails” and that the threat “never actually materialized.”
Rapino also defended how exclusive ticketing deals, according to the defense, typically arise. He testified that he believed such deals with big venues such as stadiums and arenas originate because wealthy sports team owners insist on them, he said, to gain more control and avoid dealing with multiple players. “I don’t tell the billionaire what to do with his venue. He tells me,” Rapino said, describing the dynamic as one in which Live Nation reacts to venue-owner demands rather than imposes terms.
Kessler challenged that framing with an argument that Live Nation prevented customers from bringing lawn chairs to amphitheaters so it could force them to buy the company’s own amenities. Rapino said he believed it was “a safety issue, for sure,” explaining that event spectators were getting upset with one another because fans were bringing chairs of different sizes and sometimes obstructing views. He also faced questions about a 2024 controversy involving singer Adele and complaints about Ticketmaster presales, and he offered an alternative explanation for what he said was the competitive context.
In that episode, Rapino said the situation reflected rival ticketing companies, he said, pretending they were fan clubs to “get tickets for free we had to acquire.” Kessler then asked Rapino whether Live Nation rejected Adele’s offer to pay ticketing fees to satisfy her fans. Rapino said, “We would never say no to Adele,” and he added that the company “said no to the ticketing company.”
The trial comes after the federal government reached a settlement last week as part of the broader antitrust case, with terms aimed at increasing competition and ideally lowering ticket prices for concertgoers. AP reported that six states joined the federal settlement, while 33 states and the District of Columbia continued the court fight. As Rapino testified, the states’ presentation centered on whether Live Nation’s long-running dominance in concert promotion and ticketing has harmed competition and raised costs for customers.