{"id":94230,"date":"2024-07-30T15:05:43","date_gmt":"2024-07-30T19:05:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/2024\/07\/30\/live-nation-attorneys-get-green-light-to-access-some-confidential-documents-in-antitrust-suit\/"},"modified":"2024-07-30T15:05:43","modified_gmt":"2024-07-30T19:05:43","slug":"live-nation-attorneys-get-green-light-to-access-some-confidential-documents-in-antitrust-suit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/2024\/07\/30\/live-nation-attorneys-get-green-light-to-access-some-confidential-documents-in-antitrust-suit\/","title":{"rendered":"Live Nation Attorneys Get Green Light to Access Some Confidential Documents in Antitrust\u00a0Suit"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\tLive Nation\u2019s top two in-house attorneys will not be allowed to access \u201chighly confidential\u201d documents produced by competitors like AEG Presents and SeatGeek in the antitrust lawsuit filed against the touring giant by the Department of Justice, though they will be granted access to less sensitive \u201cconfidential\u201d documents under strict conditions limiting how the information is used and shared, according to a protective court order signed Monday (July 29) in the Southern District of New York.<\/p>\n

\n\tA federal judge overseeing the case agreed to establish the two-tiered system for dealing with non-public documents the DOJ subpoenaed from Live Nation competitors as part of its ongoing investigation. For the last six weeks, DOJ antitrust lead trial counsel Bonny Sweeney<\/strong> has been in talks with Live Nation, which is accused of operating its ticketing and concert promotion businesses as a monopoly, about restricting access for the company\u2019s in-house lawyers \u2014 executive vp of corporate and regulatory affairs Dan Wall<\/strong> and senior vp of litigation Kimberly Tobias<\/strong> \u2014 to confidential information handed over by competitors. Attorneys for Live Nation have argued that granting Wall and Tobias access to confidential information is vital in helping the company prepare its defense.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tLive Music Experts Weigh In on DOJ\u2019s Live Nation Suit: \u2018We Have an Industry to\u00a0Save\u2026\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

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\n\t\u201cMr. Wall and Ms. Tobias are litigation counsel in good standing and officers of the court,\u201d Live Nation outside counsel Alfred C. Pfeiffer<\/strong> wrote in a letter to New York federal judge Arun Subramanian<\/strong>. \u201cBoth have been bound by numerous protective orders and never been accused of violating those orders. Their access to confidential information in no way puts such information at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tGovernment lawyers counter that even if Wall and Tobias \u201cpledge not to use any information they receive other than for this case, they can\u2019t unsee what they have seen,\u201d Subramanian wrote in a July 23 court order trying to resolve the confidentiality access question. Two days after that, attorneys for SeatGeek, AEG and ASM Global filed letters asking Subramanian to prevent Wall and Tobias from viewing any sensitive documents produced by the companies.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe files SeatGeek produced for the government \u201cinclude documents that a company would never want to fall into the hands of any competitor,\u201d SeatGeek attorney William Kalema<\/strong> wrote to the court.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSeatGeek hears on at least a weekly basis from venues that are reluctant even to meet with SeatGeek for fear of retaliation from Defendants,\u201d the letter continued. \u201cIf the market were to learn that venues\u2019 contracts and other communications with Ticketmaster\u2019s competitors were made available to Defendants\u2019 senior management, SeatGeek\u2019s ability to market its product would be hindered even further.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tIn Live Nation’s Antitrust Battle With DOJ, AEG’s Ticketing Claims Likely to Take Center\u00a0Stage\u00a0\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

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\n\tAttorneys for AEG said they had produced \u201chundreds of thousands of documents\u201d for the DOJ, including the company\u2019s \u201cmost sensitive and competitively significant materials.\u201d AEG attorney Justin Bernick<\/strong> took particular issue with Wall over past statements Wall has made in the media and on Live Nation\u2019s blog, arguing that Wall has often acted as the company\u2019s spokesperson rather than its lawyer.<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter a brief hearing, Subramanian ruled that Wall and Tobias would not be allowed to view documents marked as highly confidential \u2014 meaning those involving trade secrets, customer lists, current or future financial and strategic information, private contract terms, personnel files, planning documents and anything deemed sensitive by the courts \u2014 and that those documents can only be viewed by Live Nation\u2019s outside attorneys. Wall and Tobias can, however, view confidential information \u2014 defined as previously non-public financial information, material related to ownership of non-public companies, business plans and marketing campaign documents related to product development.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn order to view confidential court files, Wall and Tobias must agree not to participate or advise Live Nation on \u201ccompetitive decision-making\u201d or litigation against AEG or SeatGeek \u2014 except for litigation tied to the DOJ lawsuit \u2014 for two years after the final confidential documents are reviewed.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe \u201chighly confidential\u201d and \u201cconfidential\u201d designations will be determined by those producing the documents, Subramanian wrote in the earlier July 23 opinion, noting that \u201cif it turns out that vast swaths of the record are improperly designated highly confidential, the Court will step in\u201d and require \u201ca page-by-page review of documents by the producing party on a tight timeframe or appropriate modifications to the protective order.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBillboard<\/em> has reached out to Live Nation for comment on this story. The trial for USA v. Live Nation Entertainment is scheduled to begin<\/a> March 2, 2026.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Aller \u00e0 la source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Live Nation\u2019s top two in-house attorneys will not be allowed to access \u201chighly confidential\u201d documents produced by competitors like AEG Presents and SeatGeek in the antitrust lawsuit filed against the touring giant by the Department of Justice, though they will be granted access to less sensitive \u201cconfidential\u201d documents under strict conditions limiting how the information […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-musique","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94230\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}