Live Nation-Ticketmaster accused of 'catastrophic' threats in monopoly trial

A landmark monopoly trial has heard damning testimony alleging that Live Nation-Ticketmaster used its dominant market position to "threaten" venues into renewing contracts.

On Wednesday, former BSE Global CEO John Abbamondi and Minnesota Wild executive Mitch Helgerson told a Manhattan jury that the entertainment giant leveraged its control over concert bookings to stifle competition from rival firm SeatGeek.

Abbamondi recounted a tense 2021 phone call with Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino after the Barclays Centre chose SeatGeek’s “superior” technology over Ticketmaster.

During the recording, which Abbamondi described as featuring a "nervous guy" and an "angry guy," Rapino allegedly dropped an F-bomb and warned that shows could shift to a rival Queens arena.

Abbamondi viewed this as a “not-so-veiled” threat. Following the switch, the venue reportedly saw a "dramatic decline" in Live Nation shows, including a rebooking by Billie Eilish at the competing venue. Barclays eventually returned to Ticketmaster after Abbamondi was fired in 2022.

Similarly, Helgerson testified that the Minnesota Wild stayed with Ticketmaster despite a SeatGeek offer worth an additional $1 million annually. He claimed a Ticketmaster executive warned that Live Nation could move all concerts to a rival Minneapolis venue.

Even with “Live Nation retaliation insurance” from SeatGeek, the fear of losing the "vibrance of the venue" proved an “insurmountable challenge.”

While Live Nation argued that switching platforms is technically risky and complex, the Justice Department contends these accounts prove a pattern of monopolistic coercion—a charge the company continues to deny as the high-stakes trial progresses.