Coolcaesar, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Less than one week after a Manhattan jury found Live Nation and Ticketmaster liable of operating as a monopoly in violation of federal and state law in a landmark antitrust case, the entertainment giant has agreed to pay $9.9 million to settle a deceptive pricing lawsuit with the District of Columbia. Washington, D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb announced the deal on Monday, also detailing ordered reforms in Ticketmaster’s ticketing practices to address allegations that the company “misled customers about ticket prices, charged deceptive fees, and used illegal pressure tactics to get fans to buy tickets for a decade.”

“For at least a decade, Live Nation and Ticketmaster boosted profits by charging predatory, hidden fees – taking advantage of DC residents buying tickets for their favorite artist or team and pricing others out entirely,” said Schwalb. “With this settlement, we’re putting millions of dollars back into the pockets of DC fans and ensuring that the price fans see when they first start shopping for tickets is the price they actually pay.”

The D.C. Office of the Attorney General’s investigation found that Live Nation engaged in misleading drip-pricing tactics – deliberately obscuring the full fee-inclusive price of tickets until the final stage of checkout – from 2015 through May 2025. When fees were revealed, Live Nation did not adequately explain the nature of the costly additions and added pressure to the purchasing process through a countdown clock and pop-up messages that instilled a false sense of urgency.

“If users were inactive for more than one minute, Live Nation’s ticketing platform displayed a message saying ‘Tickets are selling fast. Get yours now before they’re gone,” the OAG detailed in a release. “This message appeared regardless of actual demand for the event.”

Of the $9.9 million that Live Nation will pay to D.C., $8.9 million will be paid back to Live Nation customers in the district through a claims process to be detailed in the coming months. The settlement will also require Live Nation and Ticketmaster to include the all-in price of tickets up front and on all displays through the purchase process – a stipulation already covered by the Federal Trade Commission’s Junk Fees Rule, which went into effect in May 2025 – and to include additional information about its fee structure and hold timer.

Live Nation’s settlement with the District of Columbia is unrelated to the company’s antitrust trial, which concluded last week after several weeks of arguments in the Southern District of New York. After the Trump administration’s Department of Justice abruptly announced settlement terms (still subject to judicial review under the Tunney Act) just one week into the proceedings, Schwalb and more than 30 other state attorneys general advanced the case without leadership from the federal government, enlisting high-profile antitrust lawyer Jeffrey Kessler as chief counsel for the plaintiffs. Judge Arun Subramanian will now determine the company’s remediation obligations by synthesizing proposals from each state attorney general and his own research.

The deceptive pricing settlement bears striking similarities to the FTC’s settlement with Stubhub, which two weeks ago required that the ticketing platform pay $10 million for three days of deliberate violations of the Junk Fees Rule. Read more about that case here.