www.ticketnews.com: Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) published a critical letter she sent this week to Live Nation Entertainment CEO in the wake of the disastrous Taylor Swift ticket sales process. Sen. Klobuchar is the Chair of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust, and Consumer Rights and has been openly critical of Ticketmaster and Live Nation in the past, related to her sharing the concerns of many that the entertainment giant is harming consumers due to the lack of competition in the industry.
2 comments:
Senator Klobuchar is absolutely right and I appreciate that she is taking a stand against people whose monopolistic tendencies are bad for everyone. I didn’t remember that the merger between Ticketmaster and live nation had happened twelve years ago, which is long enough that I think it’s possible people didn’t see the potential ramifications and were willing to let it happen (albeit with the consent decree.) It’s also concerning that the consent decree hasn’t been followed and that there hasn’t been any oversight to catch that sort of thing. If this consent decree my this monopoly is being followed, why should I believe any other consent decrees are being followed? It’s amusing to me that we have this idea that the free market will regulate itself when it’s very clear that the competition that makes the free market work - will slowly go away as companies merge and grow to the point where competition cannot exist.
I am glad Senator Klobuchar is taking steps to address how little innovation is happening on Ticketmaster’s end. They truly have no reason to fear competition. Even with other resale websites like Seatgeek or Stubhub, Ticketmaster is still the dominant voice in the industry, and I can’t imagine an act like Taylor Swift or a venue like Acrisure Stadium saying, “hey here’s this is brand new website that promises no glitches and no surge pricing so we’re going to use them.” I am frustrated that Ticketmaster and Live Nation had a consent decree in order for the merge to go through. The Department of Justice has to stop including these conditions if it’s basically them making the company pinky promise not to do these things, because then the companies immediately go do those things. The same thing happened when Facebook bought WhatsApp. If the punishment is just a fine, then the companies are going to say whatever they need to say and factor the fine into their budget. If the deal was you can merge if you don’t do this thing, and then they do that thing, then the merger should be immediately undone, they should be forced to sell and everyone on that board should be fired.
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