Lauren Feiner

And I think you just brought more awareness among the general public about, you know, what to be thinking about and aware of when their kids are using social media.

I feel like the policymakers who have decided that COSA is the way, repealing Section 230 is the way, you know, that is their focus.

You know, I don't think there's kind of this new discussion about how exactly should we do this.

We have seen some newer approaches.

with things like App Store age verification, and there's kind of different variations on how that could potentially work, whether it's real verification or assurance.

I think in general, policymakers have chosen what they think the solution is, and that's how this conversation is going forward.

And I think if people want to change, you know, what are the mechanisms of that conversation, they're really going to have to inject new solutions or think differently about the incentives here.

Hello and welcome to Decoder.

I'm Neil Apatow, editor-in-chief of The Verge, and Decoder is my show about big ideas and other problems.

Today we're talking about the major antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation, which owns Ticketmaster, and what it might mean for antitrust and competition law in general now that the Trump Department of Justice has decided to settle its part of the case, even as several states, including New York, California, and Texas, carry on.

To break it all down, I'm joined by Verge senior policy reporter Lauren Finer.

Lauren's our resident court expert, by which I mean she's been in the courtroom chronicling this trial from the beginning.

If you're a longtime Decoder listener, you might recall an episode we did on Ticketmaster back in 2023, in the wake of the Taylor Swift heiress tour fiasco.

That's when Ticketmaster's website crashed during the first major rush for heiress tour tickets.

It was such a scandal, and Swifties are so politically powerful, that Live Nation was dragged in front of Congress after widespread backlash spilled over into the mainstream.

In 2024, the Biden Department of Justice followed up on that scandal by launching an antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation, seeking to break it up, to split Ticketmaster off from Live Nation to try and combat predatory practices and increasing ticket fees.

This case has always seemed like a slam dunk, regardless of partisan affiliation.

Nobody likes Ticketmaster, and breaking up Live Nation would score political points for whoever finally pulled the trigger.

It was also supposed to be a sign of strong bipartisan antitrust support.

So even though the Trump DOJ featured all new antitrust leaders, there was good reason to believe that those new folks, in particular Trump antitrust chief Gail Slater, would keep up the pressure, especially against tech companies.