美国司法部前Ticketmaster反垄断案主诉检察官受访称对和解感到遗憾，但文章未含任何新裁决、新执法行动或新救济条款

The US Justice Department’s former lead litigator in the Ticketmaster monopolization case said the federal government would have won in court and gotten a better deal than the surprise settlementthe Trump administration reached with the company one week into the trial.

“I was saddened by that ultimate decision to not let us go through trial,” which had already begun when the deal was reached, said David Dahlquist, who left DOJ in May to return to private practice. “I was confident in our ability to win. I can be pro-settlement in the right situation, but settlements have to be effective.”

The Justice Department and dozens of states sued Ticketmaster parent Live Nation Entertainment Inc. in 2024, alleging the company illegally monopolized the live events industry. The case went to trial before a New York jury in March, where Dahlquist gave the opening statement on behalf of the federal government.

One week into the trial, DOJ reached a settlement in which Live Nation pledged to stop requiring concert venues to use Ticketmaster exclusively. The majority of the states opted to move forward with the case and eventually won on all counts, after the jury found Live Nation illegally monopolized several markets in the live-music industry.

US District Judge Arun Subramanian, who oversaw the trial, still must decide whether the Justice Department’s settlement is in the public interest and rule on the states’ requested remedies, which they have said will include forcing Live Nation to sell Ticketmaster.

Read More: Live Nation Court Loss Leaves Breakup of Ticketer to Judge

Dahlquist is joining the law firm Winston Taylor LLP — which took over as trial counsel for the states after the Justice Department’s exit. He declined to offer views on the settlement terms aside from saying that “had there been a settlement reached at the end of a jury win for the DOJ, it would have been more effective.”

At the time of the deal, a DOJ official said the Justice Department was optimistic about its chances at trial, but opted for the settlement rather than go through a lengthy process that might not result in a favorable outcome.

DOJ said in March that Live Nation, which didn’t admit wrongdoing, would no longer require large amphitheaters and arenas to use Ticketmaster as the exclusive ticketing company. Live Nation said it would build technology so that venues can more easily allow rival systems to sell up to 50% of tickets to concerts alongside Ticketmaster. The company also agreed to open up all the amphitheaters it owns or operates to rival promoters with new non-exclusive contracts.

Settlement talks with Live Nation didn’t involve Dahlquist, he said, which was an unusual break from his experience as one of department’s top antitrust litigators over the past four years. In addition to leading the trial team against Live Nation, he’d also headed up litigation in two cases seeking to break up Alphabet Inc.’s Google.

In both the Google cases, the judges declined to adopt DOJ’s proposals that would have required the tech giant to spin off pieces of its business. Last week, a federal judge ruled that Google doesn’t have to sell off its advertising exchange and instead must make its ad technology tools work with those operated by rivals.

Dahlquist said he was also disappointed in that ruling – the full text of which hasn’t yet been publicly released.

Ad tech “was a prime case to actually win a divestiture,” he said, adding that the Justice Department should consider an appeal. “We satisfied the requirements, and I believe it was called for here.”

Dahlquist is set to rejoin Winston Taylor as co-head of the antitrust practice on Monday. He said he has no plans to resume working on Live Nation, but will keep up with the case as his colleagues continue with the litigation.

“I’m gonna be in court sitting in the back of the room watching it,” he said. “I’m still very interested and excited about it.”