www.ticketnews.com: At an antitrust enforcement oversight hearing held by the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Makan Delrahim, Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Justice Antitrust Division, confirmed that Live Nation (NASDAQ: LYV) is under investigation for alleged anti-competitive behavior and its adherence to a 2010 consent decree.
3 comments:
If it smells like a monopoly and looks like a monopoly, it’s probably a monopoly. It will be interesting to watch this case go forward, especially with the difficulty in proving the unambiguity of the allegation being put in the decree. Though I’ve said it before on this topic and I’ll say it again: if LiveNation and TicketMaster truly feel that they have nothing to fear than they will allow a review without any fuss. Especially knowing that going forward on consent decrees that match the one they currently have, that will be the expectation. It would actually do them wonders to go “ok, fine, come review us” and save lots of money and time on their part—unless of course they’re trying to hide something. In which case, they’ll continue to behave as they are, insisting that they’ve done nothing wrong but refusing to let anyone in to prove it. After enough times of the DOJ having wolf cried and no investigation turning up results, they’ll probably leave the company alone, but this current behavior reeks of suspicion.
This article makes me wonder what will happen when my kids are in school. When they learn about labor laws and capitalism - who will be considered the new robber barons and who will be considered the new captains of industry. This article makes it seem like Live Nation and Ticketmaster will be up for consideration under the category of a robber baron. The ticketing take over is a little scary and their non-competition agreement is even scarier. It is sad to hear that theatres are being forced to use these ticketing agents. This probably has adverse effects on some smaller venues. I agree with Jess’s comment that if Ticketmaster/Live Nation have nothing to hide then they should just let themselves be reviewed. This article sparks the question, what other monopolies exist in our industry. I feel like some of these monopolies exist because the industry is so small but I feel like other monopolies exist because of their total domination over smaller companies.
I agree with Jess in saying that what looks like a monopoly, probably is a monopoly. Ticketmaster and/or Livenation have no reason to exist. It's not like their platform or their services are actually superior to other businesses. In fact, their ticket purchasing platform is inferior to many of the newest competition such as BrownPaperTickets, and venues' own solutions. Ticketmaster and LiveNation know this, and therefore are holding on for dear life by essentially forcing venues and artists to use them either through coercion or simply by pushing competition out. Anyone who has ever bought a ticket with ticketmaster would tell you that they would rather use a different service given the choice. This is why I often try to go directly to an artist's or venue's website to see if they sell tickets directly rather than through Ticketmaster. No one wants a $20 ticket turn into a $50 ticket because of "convenience fees".
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