For years, Americans have complained that buying concert tickets feels like getting mugged, and now the Justice Department says it has the evidence to prove why.
Right before Christmas, the Department of Justice told a federal judge it has “reams of evidence” showing Live Nation, Ticketmaster’s parent company, operates an illegal monopoly and pushed hard for the case to go to a jury trial. If the judge agrees, the company will have to defend its business model in front of ordinary Americans, not just lawyers in a courtroom.
Gail Slater, President Donald Trump’s antitrust chief, is proving that the Republican Party no longer exists to rubber-stamp corporate abuse to please big business. Instead, she is acting to singlehandedly crack the Ticketmaster monopoly that has allegedly gouged fans, bullied artists, and strong-armed venues for more than a decade.
This is what populist antitrust enforcement looks like.
Live Nation isn’t just big. Analysts say that is dominant enough to singlehandedly freeze the standard rules of the free market to a halt in the ticketing industry.
Per the DOJ’s lawsuit, the company controls over 80% of ticketing, around 60% of concert promotion, and many of the country’s top-grossing amphitheaters. In other words, fans and venues often find themselves with no choice but to do business with this monopoly. And they feel that they get squeezed while doing so.
Fans click on a ticket advertised at one price and end up paying far more once the junk fees pile up.
Are the company’s operations even legal?
According to the DOJ, that’s exactly the question a jury should answer.
And fans aren’t the only victims. According to the DOJ lawsuit, concert halls that dare to use a ticketing service other than Ticketmaster may even risk losing access to Live Nation tours altogether.
“Venues have seen that if they sign with a Ticketmaster competitor, they risk losing lucrative Live Nation concerts and may suffer other harmful retaliation,” the complaint reads. The company also allegedly boxes artists into its monopoly by “condition[ing] artists’ access to its vast and desirable network of amphitheaters and other venues on choosing Live Nation as the promoter, which enables the company to expand its control over artists and third-party venues alike.”
That’s not the free market at work, that’s for sure!
In legal terms, this is called “tying.” Antitrust law exists precisely to stop this kind of behavior, which destroys choice, innovation, and marketplace fairness.
And the new allegations just keep on coming. For example, on Dec. 30, Fanimal — a Ticketmaster competitor — filed its own antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation.
“Federal and state agencies, and classes of consumers, have filed suit against Defendants for their anticompetitive conduct,” the company stated, arguing that those suits “cannot help Fanimal, which has been forced out of business irrevocably.”
Live Nation insists there’s nothing to see here. On Dec. 29, the company claimed the DOJ has “zero proof” and has instead been pushing backwards “reform” ideas, like price controls, to deflect from the situation. But judges haven’t been buying it.
Earlier this year, the court rejected Live Nation’s attempt to have the case thrown out, criticizing the company for hiding behind legal jargon instead of addressing the real-world effects of its conduct. Now, with the DOJ right before Christmas demanding a jury trial, what may very well be Live Nation’s worst nightmare is coming into focus: the possibility that ordinary Americans will decide whether Ticketmaster’s business model passes the smell test.
Gail Slater’s approach to Republican antitrust is refreshing and long overdue. She understands that free markets don’t work when monopolies rig the game. And she also understands that protecting consumers doesn’t require bigger government or more regulations. All it requires is the courage to enforce existing law.
As she put it in her America First antitrust speech, “antitrust in the United States is law enforcement. It is not regulation.”
In 2026, the strong law enforcement from the Trump administration appears poised to stop the lack of accountability in this consumer abuse heavy industry. The wrecking ball has already been swung, and Gail Slater is the one holding it.
Edward Woodson is an attorney and conservative pundit who guest hosts for Laura Ingraham.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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