The US Antitrust Crusade: A Brief Overview of Cases Against Live Nation, Big Tech

The US Justice Department’s lawsuit accusing the owner of Live Nation and Ticketmaster of operating an illegal monopoly was just the latest of a series of US antitrust cases brought against major American corporations in recent years. The department has also filed antitrust suits against Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google (twice), and the Federal Trade Commission is suing Amazon.com Inc. and Meta Platforms Inc., owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.

Taken together, the actions amount to the biggest governmental legal assault on big business in memory — and it’s worth noting that several of the investigations started not under President Joe Biden but under his predecessor, Donald Trump. All of the companies deny that they engaged in abusive practices and say they intend to defend themselves vigorously in court. The tech companies are also under antitrust scrutiny in Europe.