[ad_1]
September 22 update at 7:20 pm Pacific Time: AEG issued the following statement in response to the end of the Osbourne trial:
On Friday, Ozzy Osbourne rejected the class action he brought against AEG. This dismissal with prejudice is a victory for AEG. We were quite ready to see the case to defend our policy, but now that Osbourne has decided to fire with prejudice, the case is over.
Our policy was an appropriate, legal and effective competitive response to Irving Azoff's lobbying tactics to force artists to participate in the Forum. If these tactics resurface, we will redeploy our policy as needed.
The Osbourne costume was launched by Azoff and paid for by MSG and Live Nation. It was hatched on the back of an artist who, in our opinion, had no idea what he was biting. The complaint was a transparent public relations ploy that failed to pressure AEG to abandon a booking policy that is an effective competitive response at the MSG-Forum meeting.
It is not surprising that once AEG refused to back down, Azoff, MSG and Live Nation are eager to drop the case as soon as possible. They dismissed the case after realizing that AEG would aggressively defend it, cost them tens of millions of dollars, and be a source of embarrassment once their dubious tactics were revealed during their discovery and trial.
The legal battle between Ozzy Osbourne and AEG has come to an end, with Black Sabbath leader's lawyers agreeing to drop AEG's lawsuit after company officials announced plans to end his policy of gambling. O2 Arena in London. play Staples Center in Los Angeles.
On Friday afternoon (September 21st), Ozzy's attorney Dan Wall filed an application to dismiss the case before the US District Court Judge Dale Fischer, a procedural gesture that ends the antitrust lawsuit filed in March against AEG. The case was dismissed with prejudice, which means that Osbourne can not dismiss the lawsuit.
"Sharon and Ozzy are happy, there is nothing more to argue," says Wall Billboard.
Osbourne and his wife and manager Sharon Osbourne allege that the singer had requested a reservation in February 2019 for the O2 Arena for his farewell tour No More Tours 2. The Osbourne attorney claimed that Ozzy had been negatively affected by the requirement that the promoter of the Live Nation tour sign the Staples Center's engagement letter, demanding that Osbourne play at least once at Staples Center owned by AEG if Osbourne planned to play in Los Angeles.
Osbourne brought a lawsuit seeking an injunction to prohibit AEG from enforcing the letter of commitment and sought class action status for other artists involved in the policy. AEG officials said they had adopted the block booking requirement in response to what they claim to be a bulk booking between the Forum and Madison Square Garden, an assertion that Irving Azoff denies with Azoff MSG Entertainment. .
In August, Fischer J. dismissed AEG's motion to dismiss the case, rejecting AEG's argument that Osbourne was not party to the agreement between its promoter Live Nation and AEG and therefore had no right to sue.
"Because Ozzy's only reasonable choice in London is the O2 Arena, he is explicitly constrained by a contract that states that he must play at Staples Center," Judge Fischer wrote, adding "Ozzy personally suffers speculative damage by not being able to play in his favorite places."
Six weeks later, the CEO of AEG Jay Marciano announced that he was putting an end to the bulk booking policy, saying Display panel "Promoters for artists who want to play O2 will no longer be forced to commit to playing at Staples Center," added: "Looking forward, we will need this commitment if we believe that the artists garden."
The policy change meant the unofficial end of the trial, and nine days later, Osbourne's attorney filed a motion to have the case closed.
[ad_2]
Source link
