Afrigather 
Stay Nation head Michael Rapino, whose firm is dealing with a DOJ antitrust lawsuit. Picture Credit score: Stay Nation
Because it fends off a high-stakes antitrust lawsuit from the DOJ, Stay Nation has formally offered a preview of its dismissal arguments.
That preview was only in the near past filed after arising in an preliminary pretrial convention late final month. Whereas not a full-fledged dismissal movement, the doc highlights in three comparatively detailed pages how the Ticketmaster father or mother intends to induce the court docket to toss the grievance.
In fact, Stay Nation has from the outset pushed again in opposition to the case and the broader try to unwind its Ticketmaster merger. In step with this clear-cut opposition, the Beverly Hills-based promoter’s letter begins by refuting the core of the plaintiffs’ tying claims, which heart on the concept Stay Nation illegally ties entry to its amphitheaters with its live performance promotion companies.
And in flip, as we described in our complete breakdown of the 124-page swimsuit, the alleged antitrust violation purportedly limits artist selection.
“Stay Nation has unlawfully required artists looking for to make use of its massive amphitheaters for exhibits as a part of a tour to additionally buy promotion companies from Stay Nation,” the plaintiffs spelled out within the authentic grievance. “Artists who would in any other case select rival promoters on the deserves of these promoters should chorus from doing so to take care of use of Stay Nation’s amphitheaters on their excursions.”
However the best way the corporate sees it, the argument surrounding the tying claims “muddles the roles of the assorted members within the reside leisure area” and really describes “a refusal to deal” with rival companies.
“Stay Nation refuses to lease its amphitheaters to different promoters,” the citation-heavy textual content reads partly, “thereby securing a aggressive benefit within the promotions market. … This effort [to challenge the alleged conduct as tying, not an unlawful refusal to deal] is ceaselessly made, however courts routinely reject it when, in substance, the plaintiff is asking the defendant to be pressured to take care of its rivals.”
From there, the concise submitting targets the “threadbare and conclusory” claims of the 30 states (together with Washington, D.C.) that joined the Justice Division swimsuit.
Per Stay Nation and its counsel (Latham & Watkins in addition to Cravath, Swaine & Moore), the 22 plaintiffs with separate claims “merely incorporate by reference all of the previous allegations” and cite the allegedly damaged state-level legal guidelines. Not offered are “the weather of every state-law declare” and descriptions of “what conduct allegedly violates the state legal guidelines in query.”
Moreover, the states “don’t allege any particulars concerning the accidents or hurt incurred—together with, for instance, what sort of hurt was suffered, who suffered that hurt, and whether or not the injured events have been” residing within the acceptable places when the alleged conduct occurred.
Closing on the time entrance, the states’ claims “are time-barred, not less than to some extent,” with the longest state-level statute of limitations at hand spanning six years, in line with the defendant.
As most know, Stay Nation and Ticketmaster accomplished their merger in 2010. And because the Astroworld lawsuit defendant Stay Nation hasn’t hesitated to reiterate, it was the Obama administration that gave the deal the inexperienced gentle, earlier than it was allowed to face (topic to an current consent decree) underneath the Trump administration.
Following the purpose to its logical conclusion, with a trial anticipated to reach within the Stay Nation antitrust motion in 2026 on the earliest, the case will play out, absent a dismissal, properly after the quick-approaching presidential election is within the books. However, it’ll be value carefully monitoring the authorized battle (one in all a number of hurdles Stay Nation is dealing with) within the coming months.
