Tommy Dorfman had a plan.<\/p>\n
He spent the 2000s spinning records and packing dance floors as a DJ and promoter at some of the hottest clubs on the East Coast. The tenacious upstart could book Snoop Dogg or the Kardashians with a single phone call. <\/p>\n
But the West Milford native wanted to take his career to the next level \u2014 and that meant breaking into the festival business.<\/p>\n
Dorfman had reached a deal in 2011 to stage a major EDM festival at the State Fair in the Meadowlands <\/b>and to deliver a series of similar events over the next five to 10 years. Even before the contract was finalized, he was recruiting global headliners like Ti\u00ebsto and David Guetta.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen it all fell apart,\u201d Dorfman told NJ Advance Media. <\/p>\n
Live Nation, the global concert giant behind Ticketmaster, declared war on the ambitious entrepreneur for stepping on its turf, according to a lawsuit<\/a> he filed later that year. <\/p>\n The behemoth used its clout to pressure top artists to pull out of the event, Dorfman claims in the suit. It threatened to withhold ticketing services unless it was named co-promoter and warned the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority that the Meadowlands would lose future bookings if it partnered with his company, Juice Entertainment, the lawsuit also alleged. <\/p>\n The alleged strong-arm tactics \u2014 and an ensuing smear campaign \u2014 ruined his Saddle Brook-based business, Dorfman contends in the lawsuit. He lost almost everything and was briefly homeless, he says. <\/b>His only play was a Hail Mary: He would take on the corporate empire by himself. <\/p>\n Fourteen years later, he\u2019s still fighting.<\/p>\n Dorfman\u2019s David-and-Goliath quest to hold Live Nation accountable might seem heroic to some and quixotic to others. The $37 billion juggernaut is the biggest concert promoter in the world, owning and operating many of the venues where those shows take place and selling the tickets through its subsidiary, Ticketmaster. <\/p>\n But Dorfman has no intention of giving up. Not until he gets his day in court. And not until Live Nation is forced to break apart \u2014 even at the cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars of his own money and ample time spent away from his two children. <\/p>\n \u201cAt the beginning, I was naive,\u201d said Dorfman, who will be in federal court Friday for a pivotal evidentiary hearing in the case. \u201cI wanted to get my festival back. I wanted things to go back to the way they were. But now I feel like I have a moral obligation to bring this into the light.\u201d<\/p>\n The Live Nation headquarters in Beverly Hills, Calif. The Justice Department filed a sweeping antitrust lawsuit against Ticketmaster and its parent company, Live Nation Entertainment, on Thursday, May 23, 2024.\u00a0Associated Press<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Dorfman has already shaken the live entertainment landscape to its core. An overlooked expert report from his lawsuit ignited a public firestorm last year \u2014 and was quickly followed by federal lawsuits \u2014 against Live Nation and Ticketmaster. <\/p>\n \u201cThey act as if they\u2019re above the law,\u201d Dorfman said. <\/b><\/p>\n As public outrage over soaring ticket prices and hidden fees fuels national scrutiny, his case has come to represent something larger than his sabotaged business: a fight over how power is wielded in the live music industry.<\/p>\n Recently, the U.S. Department of Justice<\/a> and the Federal Trade Commission<\/a> filed <\/b>separate lawsuits accusing Live Nation of using monopolistic and deceptive tactics that violate <\/b>antitrust laws. They\u2019re the same arguments Dorfman has been contending since Adele\u2019s \u201cRolling in the Deep\u201d topped the charts and Taylor Swift was still a country artist. <\/p>\n \u201cHe always had his finger on the pulse.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Agent Michael Schweiger on Tommy Dorfman<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Live Nation \u2014 the parent company of Ticketmaster after a 2010 merger \u2014 denies the allegations, claiming its business model streamlines operations and ultimately benefits artists, venues and fans. It declined to comment for this story. <\/p>\n Dorfman, a <\/b>stocky <\/b>49-year-old with broad shoulders and short brown hair, <\/b>has been awaiting his own trial for more than five years. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not surprised that he\u2019s kept this going for so long,\u201d said Michael Schweiger, an agent with three decades of experience who ran in the same circles as Dorfman. \u201cHe was the same as a promoter. He\u2019d do everything in his power to make a show happen. He\u2019s very tenacious.\u201d <\/p>\n Tommy Dorfman has already shaken the live entertainment landscape to its core. An overlooked expert report from his lawsuit ignited a public firestorm last year against Live Nation and Ticketmaster. \u00a0John Jones | For NJ Advance Media<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Dorfman got his start as a DJ when he was just a teen, throwing house parties so wild the police shut them down more times than he can count. <\/p>\n He loved the energy, the rowdiness, the music. He made it his career. <\/p>\n Dorfman spent more than a decade building Juice Entertainment into Jersey\u2019s go-to promoter for house and electronic music. By the late 2000s, he was booking Snoop Dogg, Paris Hilton, the \u201cJersey Shore\u201d cast and the Kardashians for shows in New Jersey, New York and Florida. <\/p>\n \u201cHe was one of my go-to guys,\u201d Schweiger said. \u201cHe always had his finger on the pulse.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cAt the beginning, I was naive. I wanted things to go back to the way they were. But now I feel like I have a moral obligation to bring this into the light.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Tommy Dorfman<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n But then came the Meadowlands deal and the threats.<\/p>\n One Live Nation executive, according to Dorfman\u2019s lawsuit, threatened to exploit \u201cloopholes\u201d in the contract to push him out.<\/p>\n And after Dorfman sued Live Nation, working in the industry became impossible, he contends in the suit. Talent agencies, artists and venues no longer wanted to partner with him, afraid of drawing the conglomerate\u2019s ire. <\/p>\n Worse, its executives told Meadowlands management that Dorfman and his business partner were known \u201cthieves\u201d and \u201ccould not be trusted,\u201d he alleges in court documents. <\/p>\n \u201cThey ruined my reputation and everything I had worked so hard for,\u201d Dorfman said. <\/p>\n Ticketmaster merged with Live Nation in 2010. \u00a0Associated Press <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Unable to work as a promoter, he lived in his car for a month before a family friend took him in, he says. He began selling cable door to door, a job that\u2019s helped the father of two provide for his family ever since. <\/p>\n And he decided to fight back.<\/p>\n His case was a long shot at best, but Dorfman had already faced long odds in his life \u2014 and won.<\/p>\n At one of his raucous parties, a then-18-year-old Dorfman was struck in the back of the head with a gallon bottle of vodka. The blow fractured his skull and left him temporarily blind, he said. It took him months to relearn how to walk and talk. <\/p>\n What kept him going was the dream of building a \u201cclub empire.\u201d<\/p>\n Live Nation and Ticketmaster \u201cact as if they\u2019re above the law.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Tommy Dorfman<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n So even though his lawsuit progressed slowly at first, bogged down by procedural disputes, he wasn\u2019t giving in. Live Nation delayed sending documents in the case for the first three to four years after the suit was filed, according to Mike Ma, director of legal at Juice Entertainment. <\/p>\n Then in 2018, a federal judge dismissed parts of Dorfman\u2019s claims, including some antitrust allegations. But others \u2014 breach of contract and defamation \u2014 were allowed to proceed. <\/p>\n The court also threw out an expert report on Live Nation\u2019s market power and its impact on independent promoters, ruling it was submitted late and not reliable enough to be considered. The decision was a blow: The report was designed to bolster Dorfman\u2019s allegations of the company\u2019s anticompetitive conduct. <\/p>\n But the report eventually <\/b>made its way to the public.<\/p>\n And it was a bombshell.<\/p>\n Outraged Bruce Springsteen fans erupted in 2009 when Ticketmaster\u2019s site blocked them from buying tickets for his \u201cWorking on a Dream\u201d tour before they sold out. \u00a0Al Mannarino |For NJ Advance Media<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The phone was ringing off the hook. <\/p>\n In the winter of 2009, the Paterson office of Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-8th Dist.) was flooded with calls<\/a> from furious constituents complaining of technical glitches and sky-high prices for two Bruce Springsteen concerts promoting his \u201cWorking on a Dream\u201d album. <\/p>\n Outraged fans of the Jersey legend said error messages on Ticketmaster\u2019s site blocked them from buying tickets before they sold out. Worse, hundreds of tickets reappeared within minutes on TicketsNow, a resale marketplace owned by Ticketmaster \u2014 at three to four times the face value. <\/p>\n The late congressman called on the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department\u2019s antitrust division to investigate.<\/p>\n The federal government did nothing about it. But it did sign <\/b>off on the $2.5 billion merger<\/a> of Live Nation and Ticketmaster the following year, despite warnings from Pascrell and others that the union would crush competition and harm consumers, leading to an artificially inflated ticket market.<\/p>\n After all, the company makes a profit at nearly every stage of a concert, from booking artists to staging events to processing ticket sales. <\/p>\n The deal, however, came with strings attached. Ticketmaster was supposed to divest assets, license its ticketing software <\/b>and agree not to punish venues or tie ticketing to promotion deals. Live Nation was barred from leveraging its power as a promoter to force venues into using Ticketmaster or punishing those that chose other ticketing services.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not surprised that he\u2019s kept this going for so long. He was the same as a promoter. He\u2019s very tenacious.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Michael Schweiger, agent <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cIt was an abject failure,\u201d said John Breyault, the vice president for public policy, telecommunications and fraud at the National Consumers League<\/a>. \u201cLive Nation has only become more powerful and extended its monopoly into many more markets.\u201d<\/p>\n It has more than quadrupled in size since the merger. Live Nation\u2019s revenue grew<\/a> from about $5 billion in 2010 to over $23 billion in 2024, according to its earnings reports. <\/p>\n The company is a \u201cposter child\u201d for the limits of behavioral remedies, such as rules for retaliating against venues for using rival services, according to Breyault. The bottom line? <\/b>Structural changes, like breaking up the business, are necessary, he contends. <\/p>\n \u201cLive Nation and Ticketmaster are the reason my kids, other peoples\u2019 kids, can\u2019t go to a concert anymore,\u201d Dorfman said. \u201cWho can afford\u201d these prices?<\/p>\n Pascrell and a handful of others kept pressing for reform over the years, but didn\u2019t gain much traction. That all changed last year when his staff found the expert report<\/a> from Dorfman\u2019s lawsuit.<\/p>\n Somehow, Live Nation posted it to the federal court\u2019s database, seemingly by accident.<\/p>\n Pascrell pounced, releasing the accidentally filed opinion to the public. And controversy erupted.<\/p>\n Tommy Dorfman wanted to stage a festival at the New Jersey State Fair at the Meadowlands in East Rutherford. “Now I feel like I have a moral obligation to bring (Live Nation’s conduct) into the light,” he says.\u00a0John Jones | For NJ Advance Media<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Authored by Middle Tennessee State University professor Richard Barnett, the report described Live Nation\u2019s business model as \u201cfinancially predatory.\u201d It alleged the company inflated costs and took secret vendor rebates, making shows look less profitable to artists and co-promoters, while pocketing the difference. The report also pointed to the possibility of two sets of accounting books, one public and one internal, showing conflicting pictures of profitability. <\/p>\n Within two months of the report\u2019s release, the U.S. Justice Department <\/b>and 29 states \u2014 including New Jersey and the District of Columbia \u2014 filed a sweeping lawsuit accusing the company of \u201cillegally monopolizing markets across the live concert industry\u201d by locking venues into \u201clong-term exclusive contracts,\u201d \u201cretaliating against venues that work with competitors\u201d and \u201cleveraging its dominance over artists to foreclose rivals.\u201d<\/p>\n And last month, the Federal Trade Commission filed its own lawsuit against Live Nation, alleging the company \u201cdeceived consumers and artists\u201d by \u201chiding mandatory fees until late in the purchase process\u201d and \u201ccolluding with resellers to evade ticket limits.\u201d Regulators said the companies \u201cfacilitated bulk buying through brokers,\u201d driving up prices on the secondary market while \u201cdouble-dipping on fees\u201d from both the original sale and the resale.<\/p>\n In response, Live Nation denied it was a monopoly. The company maintains it faces more competition than ever and the Justice Department\u2019s suit \u201cwon\u2019t reduce ticket prices or service fees<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n But the lawsuits have come \u201c10 to 15 years too late,\u201d said John Scher, a veteran New Jersey promoter who worked with The Who, U2 and The Grateful Dead. <\/p>\n \u201cLive Nation and Ticketmaster have completely changed the game,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are many stories out there of independent promoters like Tommy being pushed out, and I\u2019m not sure if there\u2019ll be any independent promoters in five years.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cLive Nation has only become more powerful and extended its monopoly into many more markets.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n John Breyault, National Consumers League<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n That\u2019s what Dorfman has been proclaiming for almost 15 years.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is why I\u2019ve continued to fight,\u201d he said, declining to share the exact amount he\u2019s spent suing Live Nation. \u201cI want to see a vibrant scene again for the artists, for the promoters, for the fans.\u201d<\/p>\n Beyond the lawsuits, the U.S. House of Representatives has taken action. It passed the TICKET Act<\/a>, a bill that would require ticket sellers to show the full price up front and prohibit speculative ticketing. The bill remains on the legislative calendar for the Senate\u2019s current session.<\/p>\n In a written statement, Rep. Nellie Pou, Pascrell\u2019s successor, said \u201cchange is finally in the air.\u201d <\/p>\n Dorfman hopes to capitalize on that change this week.<\/p>\n Between 2013 and 2016, Live Nation turned over a trove of internal emails and documents \u2014 evidence Dorfman believes bolsters his case. Friday\u2019s hearing is a potential turning point as Live Nation is fighting to block nearly 500 pieces of it. <\/p>\n Dorfman hopes the public will get to see it when he has his day in court. <\/p>\n \u201cThis is nothing new,\u201d he said. \u201cI hope something comes out of it for the artists, the promoters and the fans.\u201d<\/p>\n Tommy Dorfman wants justice for himself \u2014 and those who appreciate live music.\u00a0John Jones | For NJ Advance Media<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.nj.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Tommy Dorfman had a plan. He spent the 2000s spinning records and packing dance floors as a DJ and promoter at some of the hottest clubs on the East Coast. The tenacious upstart could book Snoop Dogg or the Kardashians with a single phone call. But the West Milford native wanted to take his career […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2095093,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2095092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Music-This-Jersey-guy-has-been-battling-Live-Nation-for-scaled.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2095092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2095092"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2095092\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2095094,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2095092\/revisions\/2095094"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2095093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2095092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2095092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2095092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.nj.com\/resizer\/v2\/ACZB2CFGXZFWHBDNT276NJZBZM.jpg?auth=7f1c3fcef70aa1754312cb8fcc65357a7d73a8c68840df462d4c00fe7d08ab2e\")
<\/div>\nRuins of a career<\/b><\/h2>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.nj.com\/resizer\/v2\/PPDM3UJWTJGB7A7EZJOHNGHR3I.jpg?auth=0e666a73ae568bd316eab4c1e9b876a5006ae1086f74ec6b194de1b278993565\")
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<\/div>\nA predatory monopoly?<\/b><\/h2>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.nj.com\/resizer\/v2\/HONC3OUU5FC3VFBAIEGKMA5E2Q.jpg?auth=ca45c87c7f71577cf09eddc3ca37a68e84e23fa2fcb60b34a23c64f004686dc7\")
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