Cumulus Media’s antitrust lawsuit against Nielsen already has a ripple effect outside of the radio industry. State attorneys general suing Live Nation Entertainment cited a Second Circuit decision in the case, arguing the logic applies to concert tickets as much as ratings.
The July 13 decision to keep an injunction in place affirmed a lower court’s finding that Nielsen’s policy conditioning access to its national radio ratings data on the purchase of local data in every market a broadcaster operates or a raised standalone price for the national data alone likely constitutes an illegal tie.
The appeals court’s reasoning held that a policy tying two products together doesn’t need to be spelled out in a contract to violate antitrust law, and that a company’s ongoing enforcement of a coercive pricing structure is enough on its own to establish the tie. That distinction matters well beyond radio, since that precedent may now apply to any company that sells one product customers need alongside another product they’d rather skip.
Or at least, that’s exactly the argument the states are now making against Live Nation.
In 2024, the Department of Justice and a coalition of roughly 39 states sued Live Nation and its ticketing subsidiary, Ticketmaster, accusing the companies of illegally dominating the concert business, controlling everything from artist promotion to venue operations to how tickets get sold. The trial started in March, but partway through, the DOJ reached its own settlement with Live Nation and dropped out. Thirty-three states and Washington, DC pressed on without the federal government.
On April 15, a jury sided with the states on every claim, finding that Live Nation and Ticketmaster illegally monopolized concert ticketing and venues, and illegally tied its amphitheaters to its concert-promotion business. Jurors also found the misconduct had overcharged fans by $1.72 per ticket in more than 20 states. It’s considered the largest antitrust verdict ever against a live-entertainment company, and the case could still end in a breakup of Live Nation and Ticketmaster.
Live Nation has asked the court to throw out the verdict entirely or order a new trial, arguments the states have to formally rebut. That’s where the Cumulus ruling comes in. In a July 22 letter to US District Judge Arun Subramanian, New York’s Attorney General’s office, joined by antitrust attorneys from roughly 30 other states, told the court that the Second Circuit’s reasoning in the Nielsen case backs up the states’ position in the Live Nation case. Both cases turn on the same basic legal question of whether a company can be found to have illegally tied two products together even without an explicit rule requiring the purchase, if its pricing and policies leave customers no real alternative.
The states argue the answer the Second Circuit gave in the ratings dispute is exactly the answer that should apply to concert tickets and amphitheaters too.
As for Cumulus and Nielsen themselves, the fight is far from over. The July 13 ruling only decided whether the injunction should stay in place while the case continues. That fight now heads back to district court for a full trial on liability.
