Table of Contents
The federal choose presiding over the Division of Justice’s sweeping antitrust case towards Dwell Nation thinks the trial can start as early as March 2026, in accordance with current federal courtroom filings.
Decide Arun Subramanian defined Thursday (June 27) within the case’s first pre-trial listening to that he hoped jury choice may start that month, though he stopped in need of setting a agency date.
One of many first gadgets of enterprise for Subramanian, who was appointed to the federal bench by President Joe Biden in 2023, is to rule on a deliberate movement by Dwell Nation to maneuver the case from the Southern District of New York to the federal circuit courtroom in Washington, D.C., the place Dwell Nation’s 2010 merger with Ticketmaster was first authorised. Subramanian stated he believed his courtroom may correctly preside over the case however that he would totally think about the advisement.
Previous to being appointed to the federal bench, Subramanian was a accomplice at litigation agency Susman Godfrey LLP, which at the moment represents Dwell Nation within the 2021 Astroworld pageant class motion lawsuit. Subramanian didn’t work on that case.
Authorities attorneys stated in a Tuesday (July 25) submitting that they plan to convey extra claims towards Dwell Nation, noting the brand new claims may embrace info that attorneys from Dwell Nation have designated as extremely confidential and may ask the courts to seal.
Attorneys for the federal government “don’t imagine any of the data at subject deserves sealing or overcomes the presumption of public entry to judicial paperwork,” the filings clarify, noting that if Dwell Nation doesn’t budge, the federal government will ask the choose to rule on the matter.
Division of Justice (DOJ) attorneys additionally complained that Dwell Nation attorneys have delayed discovery requests and did not “totally adjust to any of america’s three pre-complaint civil investigative calls for” courting again to October 2022.
“It took Defendants almost a 12 months to begin producing custodial paperwork,” the submitting reads, noting that “their responses to many specs stay incomplete right this moment.”
Attorneys for Dwell Nation known as the federal government’s discovery allegation false, noting that “since October 2022, Defendants have spent over 200,000 lawyer hours reviewing paperwork, produced over 600,000 paperwork from almost 70 custodians, produced over 33 million observations of information, submitted dozens of written responses, and supplied investigative deposition testimony from three high-level executives in response to Plaintiffs’ investigations. As well as, DOJ has entry to almost two million paperwork that Defendants produced throughout prior investigations.”
Attorneys for Dwell Nation added that they need “any paperwork, information or testimony Plaintiffs acquired from third events throughout their investigation” no later than July 22, 2024.
Dwell Nation can be difficult the federal government’s uncommon request for a jury trial as an alternative of getting the decision decided by a choose. “If it occurred, it could be the primary jury trial ever in a government-brought monopolization case,” the corporate’s attorneys wrote.
Outdoors of Dwell Nation, the federal government additionally says it plans to subject greater than 100 third-party subpoenas to “ticketers, promoters, ticket brokers, venues, venue administration corporations, artists, and artists’ brokers and managers.”
Dwell Nation declined to remark for this story.
Dwell Nation is being represented by longtime lawyer and litigator Timothy L. O’Mara and Alfred C. Pfeiffer, each companions at Latham and Watkins. Pfeiffer is the previous co-chair of the agency’s Antitrust & Competitors Apply. Ticketmaster is represented by David R. Marriott with Cravath, who efficiently represented Illumina towards the Federal Commerce Fee and secured a 2022 victory for the Louis Dreyfus Firm towards DOJ efforts to dam the sale of Imperial Sugar to U.S. Sugar.
The federal government is represented by Bonny Sweeney, who joined the DOJ in 2022. Sweeney previously served as a accomplice at San Francisco agency Hausfeld the place she was co-chair of its U.S. antitrust observe group. In 2023, she was named antitrust lawyer of the 12 months by the California Attorneys Affiliation.
