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Adult and Ancient Black Dragons have access to the following Lair Action when in their lairs:

Magical darkness spreads from a point the dragon chooses within 60 feet of it, filling a 15-foot-radius sphere until the dragon dismisses it as an action, uses this lair action again, or dies. The darkness spreads around corners. A creature with darkvision can't see through this darkness, and nonmagical light can't illuminate it. If any of the effect's area overlaps with an area of light created by a spell of 2nd level or lower, the spell that created the light is dispelled.

What spells or abilities can dispel, suppress, illuminate, or otherwise overcome this non-spell-based darkness?

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Things that will work

Antimagic field

Since this lair action creates "magical darkness", that means that it is suppressed when it overlaps with the effects from antimagic field.

Spells and other magical effects...are suppressed in the sphere and can't protrude into it...While an effect is suppressed, it doesn't function, but the time it spends suppressed counts against its duration.

However, since antimagic field is only a 10 ft sphere (as opposed to the 15 ft sphere area of darkness) there is no way for it to suppress all the magical darkness at once.

Daylight or any spell producing magical light (cast with a 3rd level slot or higher)

Daylight being a source of magical light, will indeed illuminate any area of the darkness that intersects its radius. Given that daylight's radius is 60 ft, it could easily cover up all of the darkness if the positioning is correct.

Jeremy Crawford clarifies this by saying:

If a source of magical light is not a spell of 2nd level or lower, darkness can be illuminated by that light.

However, it will not dispel the darkness since this magical darkness is not created by a spell.

If any of this spell’s area overlaps with an area of darkness created by a spell of 3rd level or lower, the spell that created the darkness is dispelled.

Following the same logic as daylight, faerie fire and other light spells can also illuminate the darkness. However, they must be cast using a spell slot higher than 2nd level or it will be dispelled by the dragon's darkness.

Magic items or any source of magical light not coming from a spell

If any of the effect's area overlaps with an area of light created by a spell of 2nd level or lower, the spell that created the light is dispelled.

Any kind of magical light that is not a spell cannot be dispelled by the effect. Thus, it illuminated the magical darkness at whatever radius and intensity is specified by the relevant effect.

Jeremy Crawford has confirmed this logic specifically in reference to the magical item, Sun Blade1:

The sun blade is magic item. It produces light. It is not a spell of 2nd level or lower. It can, therefore, illuminate the area of a darkness spell.

Devil's sight

While perhaps not exactly what you want, the warlock's devil's sight ability will give the warlock (but nobody else) the ability to see through the magical darkness created by the dragon.

You can see in darkness, both magical and nonmagical, to a distance of 120 feet.

Things that won't work

Dispel magic

Dispel magic only works on spells and the dragon is not casting a spell by using the lair action. See What happens when you target a "magical effect" with Dispel Magic? for more discussion.


1 - thanks @Gandalfmeansme

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The daylight spell works, at the level you'd expect this encounter

Daylight
3rd-level evocation

Casting Time: 1 action / Range: 60 feet / Components: V, S / Duration: 1 hour
A 60 foot radius sphere of light spreads out from a point you choose within range. The sphere is bright light and sheds dim light for an additional 60 feet.

If any of this spell’s area overlaps with an area of darkness created by a spell of 3rd level or lower, the spell that created the darkness is dispelled.

The question one needs to consider is 'do you want to counter it or dispel it?'

Counter

This is easier to handle. Since daylight is magical illumination, and it is not 2d level or below, then it illuminates the area in question, and quite a bit beyond.

And it not only does this, but it does it for a period of 1 hour and doesn't require concentration. Other than the risk of having your Daylight dispelled, this should be sufficient to overcome the lair effect for the duration of your combat.

Dispel - But Are Lair effects equivalent to spells? Not really

(Or, A magical effect by another name...)

Less clear, in terms of "is this lair action a spell, or something else?"
The created darkness is arguably "a magical effect" which may make it equivalent to a spell and thus dispelled.

However, it can also be argued that lair actions, even if they are magical effects, are not spells but are instead something more like a class ability.

This means that while daylight illuminates the area, the darkness is not dispelled. Once the daylight's duration is completed, the darkness remains. From an RAI perspective, Crawford's tweet supports this ruling.

Nothing else is a spell unless it is presented as a spell or called one ...

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