Most of the 40 state and district attorneys general suing Live Nation-Ticketmaster are moving forward with trial starting Monday. The DOJ settled, and a handful of states followed, but the majority rejected that outcome and withdrew their mistrial motion filed after last Monday's surprise DOJ settlement announcement.

The states arrived at Friday's hearing with new outside counsel leading their trial team. That detail matters: it signals a coordinated, deliberate continuation, not a scramble. The core claim remains that Live Nation holds an illegal monopoly over the concert industry.

The split between the DOJ's settlement and the states' refusal to accept it is the story worth reading in full. What terms did the states reject, who is leading their new legal team, and how far does their monopoly argument go beyond what the federal government was willing to pursue.

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