A federal judge in California ruled on Friday that Live Nation and its subsidiary Ticketmaster must face a class action on behalf of millions of Americans for allegedly overcharging them for events at major concert venues across the country.

U.S. District Judge George Wu in Los Angeles ruled that the plaintiffs met the criteria to expand their lawsuit into a class action seeking 15 years of alleged damages tied to the purchase of more than 400 million tickets.

Live Nation had urged Wu to deny certifying the lawsuit as a class action. The company and attorneys for the plaintiffs did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The class covers consumers who bought tickets directly from Ticketmaster or a Live Nation affiliate for events at major venues since 2010.

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Beverly Hills, California-based Live Nation was accused in the 2022 lawsuit of monopolizing ticketing services, allowing the company to charge artificially high prices in violation of antitrust law.

Live Nation and Ticketmaster have denied any wrongdoing.

In their opposition to class certification, Live Nation and Ticketmaster told Wu that individualized issues involving tickets sold for 1,000 venues made it impossible to hold a single trial on the plaintiffs’ allegations.

Live Nation said the venues, not Ticketmaster, set fees paid by fans, often on a show-by-show basis.

The U.S. Supreme Court in October declined to hear a bid by Live Nation and Ticketmaster to move the lawsuit out of federal court and into private arbitration.

Live Nation faces other antitrust lawsuits over its ticketing practices, including an antitrust action filed in federal court in Manhattan by the U.S. Justice Department and a group of states. The company has denied any wrongdoing in that case.

(Reporting by Mike Scarcella; Editing by David Bario and Matthew Lewis)

If Americans keep choosing cheap, processed food over healthier options, taxpayers will have to keep footing the bill with higher healthcare costs, Republican Congressman Eric Burlison warned Congress on Friday. Before he took to the House floor, The Daily Wire sat down with Burlison to learn about his health care solutions.

“Healthcare is not just about insurance, it’s about being healthy,” Burlison told The Daily Wire. “When you look at the amount of money that we spend per capita on food versus other countries, we buy cheap food. Other countries spend more money on food, but they also spend less money on health care. In America, we spend a little money on healthy food but a lot of money on the back end in insurance.”

Total United States health spending for 2025 is expected to be $5.6 trillion, according to the Health Affairs National Health Expenditure Projections. And over the next decade, America’s medical bills are projected to grow about 1.5% faster every year than GDP. In 2025, Medicare was the largest line item in the United States’ spending budget, accounting for 17.8%. 

Burlison believes the solution lies in his Make America Healthy Again Accounts, which he is spearheading alongside Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The accounts are “a supercharged, tax-free health account” and would allow individuals to contribute $25,000 tax-free and $50,000 per family every year. The money in the accounts rolls over each year and never expires. 

“The unique idea that we have,” Burlison told The Daily Wire, “is we’re going to allow for a particular amount of money out of this account to be spent on healthy food, protein, produce, vitamin supplements, and yes, maybe a gym membership, so that people are encouraged. Don’t go buy junk food, go buy unprocessed healthy food. And if you do buy it, we’re going to give you a tax deduction on that.” 

Burlison says employers will be able to contribute to the account, allowing them to “help cover premiums or out-of-pocket expenses without wasting money on the current bloated system.” He wants every account to come with a $5,000 interest-free credit line for deductibles or unexpected costs.

His pitch to the House comes right as the Senate failed to advance two competing health care proposals authored to replace the Affordable Care Act subsidies, which are set to expire at the end of this year. Democrats continue to advocate for an extension of Obamacare that would increase the deficit by $350 billion if made permanent. “The American people made it clear they wanted the ACA tax credits extended,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

Burlison, however, compared the extension to throwing money on a sinking ship.

“I think it’s a fool’s errand to throw money down on the sinking ship,” said Burlison. “Instead, we really need to reform healthcare and let people purchase the healthcare that they truly want and need.”

Speaker Mike Johnson says he has plans to hold a floor vote on a GOP plan next week.