Live Nation’s Antitrust Reckoning Kicks Off Before NYC Jury

Live Nation Entertainment Inc. starts a jury trial Tuesday over claims by the US Justice Department and more than three dozen states that the nation’s largest concert promoter is illegally monopolizing the live music industry and should be forced to shed its Ticketmaster unit.

A jury was selected Monday in New York City federal court in a civil trial that could last five or six weeks about whether the largest US venue owner and ticket seller violated antitrust law. If jurors side with the government, they’d also determine the amount of damages owed to the states on behalf of consumers, and then the judge would decide on other remedies, including a potential breakup.