The entertainment company reportedly misled shareholders in relation to its antitrust compliance
Entertainment company Live Nation is set to pay US$20 million to settle a class action suit filed by shareholders over misleading statements, reported Reuters.
The proposed settlement was filed in Riverside, California federal court last Friday and is pending judge approval.
Live Nation shareholders accused the company of misleading them in relation to industry competition and antitrust law compliance to artificially bump up its stock price. In August 2023, the shareholders claimed that Live Nation breached US securities provisions by not sharing material information about the regulatory risks it faced and its cooperation with government investigations.
The shareholders alleged that the main driver of Live Nation’s business growth was its anticompetitive business practices, such as retaliating against ventures that rejected its subsidiary company Ticketmaster. The proposed class action included thousands of shareholders on estimate.
Live Nation maintained that it did nothing wrong and said in a statement published by Reuters that it proposed the settlement “solely to eliminate the uncertainty, burden, and expense of further protracted litigation.”
The plaintiffs’ lawyers said that the proposal was “fair, reasonable and adequate” and that it succeeded “hard-fought litigation and arm’s length negotiations” in a filing snippet published by Reuters. The lawyers explained that the settlement amount would cover approximately three percent of the maximum estimated damages of US$743 million – within the range of securities class action settlements approved by the court in the past.
The attorneys also indicated that they would request US District Judge Kenly Kiya Kato to grant them up to 33.3 percent of the settlement fund in legal fees, amounting to approximately US$6.7 million. A preliminary settlement approval hearing has been set for April 24.
The case is Brian Donley et al v. Live Nation Entertainment, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, No. 2:23-cv-06343-KK-AS. Representing the plaintiffs are Phillip Kim and Joshua Baker of The Rosen Law Firm and Ex Kano Sams II and Garth Spencer of Glancy Prongay & Murray. Melanie Blunschi, Morgan Whitworth and Jason Hegt of Latham & Watkins are acting for the defendants.
Both Live Nation and the shareholders’ attorneys did not immediately respond to requests for comment, according to Reuters.
