Ozzy Osbourne has dropped his antitrust lawsuit against Los Angeles entertainment giant AEG over the concert promotions company's policy requiring acts that wanted to play the O2 Arena in London to also perform at Staples Center, according to court papers obtained Monday.
Osbourne's attorney filed a stipulation Friday in Los Angeles federal court to dismiss the case before U.S. District Judge Dale Fischer. The case was dismissed with prejudice, meaning Osbourne cannot refile the lawsuit.
Last month, Fischer rejected AEG's motion to dismiss the suit, finding that the arena operator's arguments were "unpersuasive" and the block- booking policy coercive.
In the lawsuit, filed in March, Osbourne's lawyers claimed the singer tried to book a date on his No More Tours 2 farewell trek at London's O2 in February, only to be told that it was available with the condition he also contract with Staples Center. Both venues are owned by AEG.
In her order, Fischer wrote that AEG is "using market power in one market to foreclose competition in another through a tying arrangement. That tie allegedly harms Ozzy by constricting his choices on where to play his concerts regardless of whether Ozzy's or his concert promoter's name is on the contract with the venue."
Earlier this month, AEG chief executive Jay Marciano announced he was ending the block-booking policy, telling Billboard magazine that "promoters for artists that want to play the O2 will no longer be required to commit to playing Staples Center," adding, "Going forward, we will only require this commitment if we believed artists were being pressured to play the Forum (in Inglewood) to gain access to the (Madison Square) Garden."
