PICKLEJAR ENTERTAINMENT GROUP RESPONDS TO LANDMARK LIVE NATION ANTITRUST VERDICT
Company Reaffirms Commitment to Independent Live Music Venues and Expands Venue Managed Services Across Houston, Austin, Nashville, New Orleans, and South Florida
HOUSTON, TX – April 16, 2026 — PickleJar Entertainment Group (OTC: PKLE), an independent live event technology company, today issued the following statement in response to yesterday’s landmark federal jury verdict finding Live Nation Entertainment and its subsidiary Ticketmaster liable for illegally maintaining monopoly power in the U.S. live events and ticketing market.
“The market is moving, and PickleJar is already there. Yesterday’s verdict confirms what independent venue operators have experienced firsthand for years — a system designed to serve the platform, not the people running the show. We built PickleJar specifically for the local and independent venues that have been overlooked, overcharged, and cut off from their own fans. We are actively working with venues and festivals across our five priority markets today, and this ruling only accelerates the conversation.”
— Jeff James, Chief Executive Officer, PickleJar Entertainment Group
The Verdict Confirms What Local Venues Have Always Known
Yesterday’s federal jury finding — that Ticketmaster controlled approximately 86% of the concert ticketing market through anticompetitive conduct — is not a surprise to the independent venue community. It is a confirmation of what local operators have navigated for more than a decade: a marketplace where their options were artificially limited, their costs were inflated, and the data about their own fans was controlled by a platform they did not own and could not leave without consequence.
PickleJar Entertainment Group was built in direct response to this reality.
Purpose-Built for Local Live Music
Local and independent live music venues are the backbone of live entertainment in America. They develop emerging artists, anchor communities, and create the experiences that define a city’s cultural identity. For too long, these operators have carried that responsibility while struggling under the weight of ticketing platforms that charge excessive fees, withhold fan data, make it difficult to market effectively, and leave venue operators with little ability to stand out or build lasting audience relationships.
The PickleJar platform was engineered to solve each of these problems. Venues operating on PickleJar own 100% of their fan data, with full CRM access and the ability to market directly to their audience — on their own terms, on their own timeline. The platform’s integrated marketing automation delivers both email and SMS capabilities, eliminating the need for costly third-party marketing tools and enabling operators to engage fans meaningfully before, during, and after every event.
A True 360-Degree View of Every Fan
Through PickPay, PickleJar’s integrated venue payment platform, operators can process ticket sales online, manage walk-up payments at the door, and track merchandise and food and beverage transactions — all within a single unified system. Every transaction is attributed directly to the fan, giving venue operators a complete, real-time picture of audience behavior and per-capita spending across every revenue category. This data belongs to the venue. Not the platform. Not a third party. The venue.
Momentum Across Five Priority Markets
PickleJar is actively expanding its venue managed services platform across five strategic markets: Houston, Austin, Nashville, New Orleans, and South Florida. The Company is currently engaged in conversations with festivals and local live music venues across these markets as independent operators evaluate their long-term platform options in the wake of this landmark ruling.
The antitrust verdict creates a structural opening that the independent venue market has not seen in over a decade. Venues now have both legal clarity and a proven, operational alternative. PickleJar is positioned, present, and ready to serve them.