Ozzy Osbourne drops lawsuit against concert promoters AEG
Ozzy Osbourne has dropped his lawsuit against AEG after the concert promoters ended their ‘block-booking’ policy.
Back in March, The Prince of Darkness started legal proceedings against the company over the policy that requires acts booked to play the AEG owned The O2 in London to also play another of their venues, the Los Angeles Staples Center. Ozzy plays The O2 in February 2019 with support from Judas Priest.
Ozzy’s lawyer Daniel Wall accused AEG (Anschutz Entertainment Group, Inc.) at the time of being “monopolist" and violating antitrust laws in trying to get him to play their Los Angeles venue.
Having had their motion to dismiss the lawsuit denied by a judge in August, company officials at AEG announced plans to end its policy last week.
As Billboard reports, on Friday (21st September) Ozzy's lawyer Dan Wall filed a stipulation to dismiss the case before U.S. District Court Judge Dale Fischer, ending the anti-trust lawsuit filed in March.
The case was dismissed with prejudice, meaning that Ozzy can't refile the lawsuit at a later date.
"Sharon and Ozzy are pleased, there is nothing left to litigate," Wall told Billboard.
AEG have released the following statement in response: “On Friday, Ozzy Osbourne dismissed the class action lawsuit he filed against AEG. This dismissal with prejudice is a victory for AEG. We were fully prepared to see the case through to vindicate our policy, but now that Osbourne has decided to dismiss with prejudice, the case is over.
“Our policy was an appropriate, lawful and effective competitive response to Irving Azoff’s pressure tactics seeking to force artists into the Forum. If those tactics resurface, we will redeploy our policy as needed.
“The Osbourne suit was instigated by Azoff and paid for by MSG and Live Nation. It was hatched on the back of an artist who we believe had no idea what he was biting off. The suit was a transparent public relations ploy that failed to pressure AEG into backing down from a booking policy that was an effective competitive response to the MSG-Forum tie.
“It is no surprise that once AEG refused to back down, Azoff, MSG and Live Nation became eager to drop the case as soon as possible. They dismissed the case with prejudice after realizing AEG would aggressively defend it, costing them tens of millions of dollars and posing a source of embarrassment once their questionable tactics were exposed in the course of discovery and trial.”
Tickets to Ozzy Osbourne’s tour with Judas Priest are on sale from Planet Rock Tickets right now.
See them at the following shows:
FEBRUARY 2019
Nottingham Motorpoint Arena – Fri 1st
Manchester Arena – Sun 3rd
Newcastle Metro Radio Arena – Tue 5th
Glasgow The SSE Hydro – Thu 7th
Birmingham Genting Arena – Sat 9th
London The O2 – Mon 11th