In mid-February, the Justice Department lost its top antitrust enforcer — just weeks before it was scheduled to go to trial in one of the biggest antitrust cases of the year.
Antitrust chief Gail Slater announced her departure suddenly via a post on her personal X account. But it was far from surprising to those who follow the agency closely. Leaks about the split have for months described tensions between Slater and her team with Justice Department leadership, and President Donald Trump’s penchant for personal deal-making has raised questions about who would really call the antitrust shots.
Over the summer, two of Slater’s top deputies were fired for what the Justice Department described as “insubordination.” One later described the reversal of a wireless deal between Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) and Juniper Networks by “MAGA-In-Name-Only” lobbyists and Justice Department officials. A week before Slater announced his departure, a third deputy also left the agency.
The timing drew particular attention because Mike Davis, one of the lobbyists close to Trump who worked on the HPE-Juniper deal, also reportedly works for Live Nation. Live Nation has not commented on the reported merger. “What was going on implicitly before is now clear,” says one former Justice Department official, who was discussing personnel matters in the background, of Slater’s sudden departure. “A lot of very powerful corporations have figured out that they can just push fantasy deals and fantasy results in ways that were previously impossible, and all they have to do is pay.” After Slater announced her departure, Attorney General Pam Bondi thanked her in a statement “for her service to the antitrust division, which seeks to protect consumers, promote affordability and expand economic opportunity.”
“A lot of very powerful corporations have figured out that they can just push fantastic deals.”
The Justice Department and a group that has grown to include 40 state attorneys general sued Live Nation-Ticketmaster in May 2024 in an effort to break up the company, which they say used anti-competitive practices to lock artists and venues into orbit. By allegedly tying up different parts of its business, using exclusionary contracts and threatening “financial retaliation” to keep new players out of the market, the company was able to raise ticket prices for consumers, they allege. Live Nation said in a blog post at the time that the lawsuit “ignores everything that is actually responsible for the higher ticket prices.”
With jury selection in the case set to begin on March 2, many are questioning whether the Justice Department will remain on the case. If the agency settles and decides not to participate in the lawsuit anymore, at least some of the 40 states that joined the Justice Department in the original lawsuit could — and probably would — continue to litigate. “We look forward to going to trial against Live Nation on March 2,” California’s top antitrust attorney Paula Blizzard said at an event the day of Slater’s announcement. Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti also plans to move forward with the states’ lawsuit, Capitol Forum reported.
The Justice Department may very well remain the lead prosecutor. Omeed Assefi, who is taking over Slater’s role for the time being, has pledged to continue his agenda, MLex reported. As of February 17, he said the case was strong and he preferred a trial Capitol Forum. Global competitive overview also reported last week that Assefi had encouraged staff to look to his antitrust enforcement work as a guide to how he would lead the division. “Ask them how I feel about settling cases instead of going to trial,” he reportedly said. “Ask them what I think about taking half measures and just monetary penalties instead of seeking justice.”
But even Slater was known as a staunch antitrust enforcer — and reports suggest his agenda has been scrapped.
“States are not strangers real politics“
In general, states are always open to changes in their trial partners, says Gwendolyn Lindsay Cooley, former Wisconsin antitrust chief and chair of the National Association of Attorneys General’s Multistate Antitrust Task Force. (Cooley agreed to speak generally about the role of state enforcement, and not specifically about the Live Nation case, which Wisconsin was a part of during his tenure.) “States are not strangers. real politics” says Cooley. State law enforcement officers understand that priorities and staffing can change with administrations, whether in state agencies or the Justice Department. That may require changes, such as reassigning the most experienced attorneys to fill gaps left by federal attorneys. But Cooley says there are plenty of experienced litigators in the states.
The T-Mobile-Sprint merger lawsuit may serve as a guide. After Trump’s Justice Department approved the merger, some states settled their cases, but others continued to fight to block the merger. In the end, however, they failed — the court let the merger close anyway.
States could be more aggressive in managing the Live Nation-Ticketmaster process. The company has been widely criticized by musicians and concertgoers alike, including infamously screwing up Taylor Swift’s advance ticket sale in 2022. BloombergThe attorneys general of California and Connecticut have said they will maintain a high bar for settlements. “Any resolution that is politically motivated or influenced, or any settlement that comes out of trying to appease the president or meet his demands, probably won’t fly with either Connecticut or California,” said Connecticut AG William Tong.
In fact, citizen complaints about Ticketmaster are among the top 10 things state AGs routinely hear about, according to Cooley. “That’s something state AGs will really pay attention to.”