A month ago, The New York Times reported that Department of Justice officials have been reviewing complaints about Live Nation’s behavior in the concert marketplace. Live Nation has finally responded.

Live Nation President Joe Berchtold used the company’s quarterly results conference call to state, “We do not believe that over the past eight years, with almost 200,000 shows and thousands of Ticketmaster renewals, that we've made a practice of violating the consent decree.

“Any possible disagreement with the DOJ is very much on the margin, generally having to deal with comments made by few local promoters over the years and how those comments can be misconstrued,” he said, adding that the issues raised lead to any “fundamental changes in our business practices.”

Berchtold said its competitor AEG went to the Times after not getting the desired response from the DOJ. Post-complaint, Live Nation studied more than 30 venues and produced reports that were handed over to the DOJ. The feds raised concerns about three.

“Three out of over 2,000 venue clients in North America,” Berchtold said. “We don't believe they were decree violations with respect to those three, but given the thousands of Ticketmaster venue relationships, this clearly shows we have no systemic issues.”

Under the decree, Berchtold noted, Live Nation may bundle ticketing and content, and is allowed to discuss with artists and their reps how ticketing could affect concert routing. “We are not allowed to force Ticketmaster on venues, nor are we allowed to retaliate against venues that choose other ticketing providers. And by policy and practice, we don't do either.”