Competition Policy International’s Post

Why is someone finally waking up to breaking up this monopoly? Why disrupt the thrill of being extorted and paying exorbitant prices loaded with hidden fees? Isn't that the essence of enjoying live events these days? Jokes aside, there should never have been a Ticketmaster; there should only be a Ticketserver—a true server to the fun-loving people. #BreakUpTheMonopoly #ConcertFairness #LiveNation #Ticketmaster #Antitrust #FairTicketing #FanRights #JusticeDepartment #MusicFansUnite #EndTheMonopoly #ConcertIndustry #TransparentTicketing #TicketServer #LiveMusicFairness #ConsumerRights

Being sued by the federal government couldn't happen to a better company! • Monopoly that controls 80% of US concert ticketing without an alternative for 60% of US event venues. • Average 28% premium for privilege of buying through their exclusive channel without adding value. • Encourages and profits from repeated fees through third-party resale (scalping) where audiences pay inflated prices, artists see no additional revenue, and ticketing scammers double or triple profits. • Gatekeeping of ticket access through opt-in groups leads to monetization of communities and vast dissemination of personal data through data brokers. • Demand-based pricing penalizes fans who purchase early to support their favorite artists. Probably time to do something about some of this. #TicketHostage #Fees #Artists #Venues #Concerts U.S. Department of Justice Ticketmaster Live Nation Entertainment

Dont know if it drives up prices, but it certainly drove me up the wall and definitely drove my heart beat and blood pressure, trying to buy concert tickets at the Sports Hub earlier this year. Interesting to see how the legal case pans out and how or if it would affect ticket sales in Singapore. *** "The Justice Department and more than two dozen states sued Live Nation on Thursday, alleging the entertainment giant has a monopoly in ticketing and concert promotion and should be broken up. The lawsuit, filed in a New York federal court, alleges Live Nation used its power to squelch competition and retaliate against promoters and venues that threatened its dominance. The company chokes off competition in key pieces of the concert system, driving prices and fees higher for fans, the department said... ...Among the exclusionary practices the department challenges are long-term ticketing contracts that Ticketmaster has with venues where high-profile acts perform. Those agreements typically run between three and five years and Ticketmaster often gives lucrative financial advances that entice the venues to sign up for long-term deals. The lawsuit will also claim that Live Nation cooperated too closely with Oak View Group, an operator of stadiums, arenas and convention centers. The department says Oak View Group avoided bidding against Live Nation to attract tours and influenced venues to sign exclusive agreements with Ticketmaster. Live Nation’s head of corporate affairs, Dan Wall, defended the company against claims that it has a monopoly, in an essay published on the company’s website earlier this year. Ticketmaster doesn’t set prices, he wrote, artists and teams do, and they are subject to high demand and low supply, while the majority of fees go to venues..." https://lnkd.in/gNxeid6J

The Department of Justice suing Live Nation Entertainment for antitrust violations is for politics and optics and it is not legit. Here's why: 1. The standard for an antitrust violation is: Are prices higher for consumers? In this case: NO. Concert ticket fees have gone *down*, relative to inflation, since the 2010 merger. 2. Ticket prices are not set by Ticketmaster. 3. Because of Live Nation's powerful monetization apparatus and Ticketmaster's scale, their fees are, on average, lower than other ticket brokers. 3. There's been many references to Taylor Swift in this reporting. She’s had dates promoted by AEG. None by Live Nation. What are we doing here, people. 4. Again, ticket prices are not set by Ticketmaster!! It's an election year. The administration is trying to fight inflation with these "look, we're protecting the consumer" stories. See: the airline industry. There's nothing to see here. This is political, the DOJ is not going to win this, and they know it. #musicindustry #musicbusiness #touring #livemusic #livenation

The DOJ's antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation and Ticketmaster highlights Oak View Group (OVG) 73 times, alleging collusion to stifle competition in the live entertainment sector. In fact, OVG which operates both London's Budweiser Gardens and is overseeing the upcoming 'Hamilton Arena Project' has its own line in the Department of Justice complaint/document. So why does this matter to smaller markets of independent venues such as Kitchener or those who do not use Ticketmaster or have a massive purchasing department for live entertainment? 1. OVG ceded the tour promotions business to Live Nation, and Live Nation returned the favour, ceding the arena development and consultancy business to OVG and its OVG (Arena) Alliance. In plain words - not our arena or venue, not your show to have. 2. OVG’s presence in the venue world enables it to steer Live Nation content to its venues, whether owned or merely operated, and impose the use of Ticketmaster on those venues through a 2022 deal between the two parties that made Ticketmaster the official ticketing provider of OVG. Although OVG is not directly sued, its close relationship with Live Nation raises questions about its role and potential indirect consequences from the case. Consequences that small communities with independent venues not using Ticketmaster (or its subsidiaries such as TicketWeb or FrontGate Tickets) feel directly (or indirectly) with re-routing tours or events away from such venues or communities drawing profits to the OVG, or Live Nation owned subsidiaries. #kitchener #ticketing #livenation #liveentertainment https://lnkd.in/gedb6JR7

The U.S. Department of Justice is expected to file a lawsuit against Live Nation Entertainment, the parent company of Ticketmaster, alleging anticompetitive practices in the ticketing industry. Live Nation's control of more than 80% of the market for primary ticket sales in the US has raised concerns about limited competition and increased pricing. The lawsuit is anticipated to focus on Ticketmaster's exclusive contracts with concert venues and Live Nation's dominance over live performance tours. Live Nation has denied setting high fees and ticket prices, attributing pricing decisions to artists and venues. The lawsuit follows a years-long investigation into Live Nation's merger with Ticketmaster in 2010, which aimed to prevent monopolistic behavior. This legal action is part of the Biden administration's broader efforts to address monopolization and antitrust issues in big businesses. Follow Amanda Newman to stay up to date with technology. https://lnkd.in/ddfjxEWF

The US government did not mince words yesterday: Live Nation and Ticketmaster need to split. The Department of Justice (DOJ) and 30 state and district attorneys general sued Live Nation, which refers to itself as the “largest live entertainment company in the world,” lodging a 120-page complaint that it purposefully stifles competition, hurts consumers, and unfairly jacks up ticket prices. The suit alleges that Live Nation threatened to retaliate against venues that didn’t use its ticketing service and that artists who don’t use Live Nation’s tour promo services can’t perform at any of its venues. The DOJ said the company controls over 70% of ticket sales at major concert venues in the country. Plus, Live Nation controls 265 venues in North America and 60 of the top 100 amphitheaters in the US. “This is a travesty!” Cried the Justice Department, which allowed the merger to happen 14 years ago. Industry pros had begged the DOJ to prevent Live Nation from buying Ticketmaster, warning of the same concerns the DOJ now cites in seeking to break them up. Then came Taylor Swift… The Eras Tour’s ticket-buying process was such a mess that a bipartisan group of senators brought Live Nation execs to Capitol Hill last year to grill them on the company’s practices. The DOJ’s investigation was announced shortly after the Swiftie debacle, though the agency claimed it had already been investigating the company. Live Nation called the lawsuit “baseless.” In a company blog post, an executive claimed that the suit ignores price factors like artists’ popularity and scalpers. The post also says that Live Nation’s net profit margin was only 1.4% last year, too low to indicate a monopoly. A long road ahead…the whole thing is expected to take years to move through the courts, especially since the suit requests a jury trial (which is unusual for this type of case).—MM https://lnkd.in/eesSYA8b

“Following the US government’s explosive lawsuit against Live Nation last week, a class action has been filed with the New York courts potentially on behalf of millions of American ticket buyers. Like the government’s litigation, the class action lawsuit accuses Live Nation and its Ticketmaster subsidiary of anticompetitive conduct. Although the impact of Live Nation’s dominance on the ticket resale sector seems to be of particular concern. “Over the past three decades”, the new lawsuit states, “Live Nation and Ticketmaster collectively built empires in several key markets within the live concert and event economy”. The merger of the companies, in 2010, then created “a vertically integrated monopoly and juggernaut trust”. As with the government’s legal action, the class action sets out Live Nation’s dominant position in tour promotion, venue management, and both primary and secondary ticketing across the American market. The allegation is that it exploits its dominance in the various different strands of live music to force venues into exclusivity deals, and to prevent rival ticketing companies and ticket brokers from selling tickets to many major shows, even when Live Nation itself isn’t the promoter. And where Live Nation is the promoter and the primary ticket seller, it also seeks to restrict the flow of tickets to rival resale platforms.” #LiveNation #Ticketmaster #Live #DOJ #Legal #Fans #Touring #Talent #Artists #Music #MusicBusiness #Musica #MusicIndustry #Musique #Musik #MusicBiz

No oasis exists for Ticketmaster. If you've ever tried to or actually purchased tickets to highly popular live events on Ticketmaster, chances are you paid way over the face value. The Oasis Reunion Tour is turning out to be the coming out party Ticketmaster doesn't want as U.K. regulators launch an investigation into its use of dynamic pricing. But, that's not the only issue. After waiting for more than 10 hours, Oasis fans were offered tickets at prices more than two times their face value. Well, that shouldn't come as a surprise. While the UK is looking into the dynamic pricing issue, the U.S. DOJ took a more direct approach by filing an antitrust lawsuit against TicketMaster's parent company, Live Nation, alleging a monopoly over the live entertainment industry, which it has abused through a range of alleged anti-competitive practices. The numbers are telling. Live Nation is a dominant player in the music industry, directly managing more than 400 musical artists and promoting 60 percent of concerts at major venues. Additionally, through Ticketmaster, the company controls 80% or more of ticketing for major concerts and a growing share of the resale market. The result has been customers not only paying above (sometimes significantly) above ticket face value, but holding the bag in terms of hidden fees and surcharges. And artists and performers don't financially benefit from those additional charges. For TicketMaster, the UK case is a new headache with a focus on whether consumer protection laws have been broken. When you have constant stories from prospective ticket buyers abandoning their purchases after spending hours trying to get through, while others who manage to through facing major price increases, those are ongoing issues https://lnkd.in/gsZmYBHv #oasis #ticketmaster #livenation #uk #events #monopoly #antitrust #consumers

🎵 The State of Live Nation: An ongoing legal battle🎵 As the legal proceedings against Live Nation Entertainment Inc. and its subsidiary, Ticketmaster LLC, unfold, it's crucial to examine the broader context and the multifaceted implications of this case. Legal Background In May 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), alongside 30 state and district attorneys general, filed a civil antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation and Ticketmaster. The lawsuit alleges that Live Nation-Ticketmaster engages in monopolistic practices that harm competition in the live concert industry. Allegations and Business Practices 📋 Market Control → The DOJ accuses Live Nation-Ticketmaster of leveraging a self-reinforcing business model, or "flywheel," which involves capturing fees from concert fans, locking artists into exclusive deals, and securing venues into long-term contracts (Justice). Exclusionary Conduct → The complaint highlights practices such as retaliating against venues that opt for rival services and utilizing their market dominance to inhibit competition and innovation (Justice). Economic Consequences → These practices allegedly lead to higher ticket prices, reduced technological advancements for consumers, and fewer opportunities for independent promoters and artists (Politico). Live Nation's Position 📊 Economic Impact → Live Nation has significantly contributed to the live entertainment ecosystem, supporting thousands of jobs and stimulating local economies. Their technological advancements in ticketing and venue management have transformed the industry. Market Dynamics → The company contends that the lawsuit overlooks critical factors influencing ticket prices, such as rising production costs and the increasing popularity of artists. They also assert that exclusive agreements with venues provide stability and predictability in revenue (Politico). Commitment to Innovation and Safety → Live Nation has consistently introduced innovations to enhance the fan experience and ensure safety at events. Their dedication to creating inclusive and secure environments for concertgoers is commendable. Broader Industry Implications 🌐 This lawsuit is part of the Biden Administration’s wider initiative to boost competition across various industries. The outcome could redefine the structure of the live events industry and set a precedent for future antitrust actions. A Balanced Perspective ⚖️ While addressing anti-competitive practices is essential to keep our economy sufficiently competitive, it is equally important to acknowledge the contributions and innovations of companies like Live Nation in their industry. Constructive criticism should aim to foster a competitive industry that benefits fans, artists, and promoters alike. By supporting fair and vibrant live entertainment, we can strive for continuous improvement and innovation in the industry. 🎤✨ #LiveNation #Ticketmaster #LiveEvents #Innovation