Justice Department sues Ticketmaster and owner Live Nation, alleging illegal monopoly

[Bearcat]

Thanks, Taylor!

BREAKING: Justice Department sues Ticketmaster and owner Live Nation, alleging an illegal monopoly over live events in the U.S. https://t.co/yMlRYo0WqR

— The Associated Press (@AP) May 23, 2024

“We allege that Live Nation relies on unlawful, anticompetitive conduct to exercise its monopolistic control over the live events industry in the United States at the cost of fans, artists, smaller promoters, and venue operators,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. “The result is that fans pay more in fees, artists have fewer opportunities to play concerts, smaller promoters get squeezed out, and venues have fewer real choices for ticketing services. It is time to break up Live Nation-Ticketmaster.”

[Garcia Bronco]

Originally Posted by scho63

Are you being forced to buy tickets?

Is anyone?

Are sports and music events mandatory and you HAVE to attend?

It's everyone's right to decide if they want to attend or not and spend the price.

None of the governments business.

Complete overreach

I'm not being forced to buy tickets but when I buy tickets I am forced to deal with that entity, That's the problem and the whole point of the Sherman antitrust act.

[threebag]

Originally Posted by BigRedChief

They are. We have allowed all these huge conglomerates to merge. Its just not to our benefit to only have 3 companies providing 80% of our food. We only have 1 company that builds airplanes for the military and civilian here in the USA. Only 1 company in the USA that builds semi-conductor's that run pretty much everything we use daily..

Tickets would be cheaper to live events if they were broke up along with the others. It cost $150 to go see anyone these days. When we use to see those acts for 1/2- 1/3 of that cost for the same show.

Ticketmaster and Live nation are paying way above market vaule for exclusive rights to an arena. They then not only pass that money onto us but it keeps another promoter from trying to provide a better product to us in that venue.

I call bullshit

[Bearcat]

Originally Posted by TomBarndtsTwin

TicketMaster IS a scam, but do we really wanna involve the govt. in this? Let's think about that for a second.

TicketMaster has the right to charge whatever ridiculous fees they want to and you as the consumer have the right to tell them to '**** off' and not purchase from them.

Think of the price gouging as nothing more than an unfortunate outcome to their shitty monopoly ways... theoretically, the government isn't coming in to say they can only charge $x or whatever.

They're coming in to fix the issues where they've forced everyone in multiple industries to deal with them and them only, where the path to entering the market as a ticket seller doesn't even exist, and probably other issues that gouge not just consumers, but artists, leagues, arenas/stadiums... everyone.

The government is (supposed to be) making the monopoly go away based on laws that have been on the books for 150 years.... the pricing will either fix itself in a fair market or it won't, but sure as hell would be nice.

[tk13]

Originally Posted by TomBarndtsTwin

TicketMaster IS a scam, but do we really wanna involve the govt. in this? Let's think about that for a second.

TicketMaster has the right to charge whatever ridiculous fees they want to and you as the consumer have the right to tell them to '**** off' and not purchase from them.

To be fair Ticketmaster screwed around with the wrong consumers here. You don't cross the Swifties. Those consumers are about to tell them where to stick it and they may be about to pay for it.

Everyone's talking about the prices but the real kicker with this will be about whether their ticket selling practices get dragged out into the light. It's not just about ticket prices. It's not really a secret that Ticketmaster turns a blind eye to scalpers and bots because Ticketmaster owns the resale market now. They can sell tickets like Taylor Swift's to scalpers, make money on all these "fees" for the initial sale then the scalper turns around and sells the ticket for a big profit and Ticketmaster makes even more on the "fees" for that purchase as well.

This has been a thing for years, in fact there's some belief Ticketmaster encourages it, it's just nobody has ever wanted to touch it: https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/tic...egas-1.4828535

[scho63]

So in 2010 the government allowed them to merge and now the government is saying "do-over, we ****ed up."

This is why I hate government.

[tk13]

Originally Posted by scho63

So in 2010 the government allowed them to merge and now the government is saying "do-over, we ****ed up."

This is why I hate government.

That is a complete misunderstanding of what I think is about to happen here or why it happened in the first place. I really think this is going to be about looking into their business practices and determining whether they were acting unethically based on the fact they had a monopoly. There are other companies who have quite a bit of control over a certain market, but there's also not the evidence that those companies are doing the things Ticketmaster is accused of doing. But we'll find out.

[Pitt Gorilla]

Awesome.

[scho63]

Here are a few theoretical questions:
-What if the government wants to regulate beer prices at Dodger Stadium?
-What if the government wants to start blocking player contracts saying they are too excessive?
-What about souvenirs?

The whole sporting and entertainment events industry is so out of control with costs.

I think Ticketmaster is an easy villain.

If Ticketmaster is using extortion tactics, then it should be criminal not civil/antitrust.

The reason for all these lawsuits and actions is that it is a way for states and Feds to extort large amounts of money from corporations to bring into their coffers.

The people affected get shit.

The lawyers and government make out and you get a check for $7.26.

[loochy]

Originally Posted by BigRedChief

We only have 1 company that builds airplanes for the military and civilian here in the USA.

What? WTF?

[ThrobProng]

Originally Posted by loochy

What? WTF?

Just off the top of my head there is Boeing, Spirit, Cessna, Bombardier, Northrop Grumman, and Lockheed Martin.

[crispystl]

Originally Posted by Fish

JFC man

WOW LOL
JUST...WOW

[scho63]

For a long time, many promotors or events were hit or miss. Some made money and some didn't.

The industry has taken off in the last 10 years as the US consumer is flush.

If this was a real problem, then stadiums and events wouldn't be so much in demand.

Ticketmaster's margins are not high .

Just look at NVDA's dominance. Better product, sky high margins and massive cash and profits.

[KCUnited]

It all makes sense now

[scho63]

Originally Posted by KCUnited

It all makes sense now

I prefer the Thimble......

[WhawhaWhat]

Originally Posted by TomBarndtsTwin

TicketMaster IS a scam, but do we really wanna involve the govt. in this? Let's think about that for a second.

TicketMaster has the right to charge whatever ridiculous fees they want to and you as the consumer have the right to tell them to '**** off' and not purchase from them.

A monopoly is the opposite of a free market. Livenation and Ticketmaster being the only game in town and being able to charge anything they want is not in the best interest of the American people. This is the exact thing the government should be doing more of.