After a high-profile antitrust lawsuit, the U.S. Justice Department said Monday that it has tentatively settled with Ticketmaster and its parent company, Live Nation.
After merging in 2010, the combined Live Nation and Ticketmaster control the majority of ticket sales and venue bookings in the U.S., leaving talent little choice but to work with these companies. Customers have been fed up for years with dynamic pricing issues that can drive up ticket costs by thousands of dollars (often without consulting the artists), as well as the process of buying tickets — the sales for Taylor Swift’s Eras tour were so widely aggravating that they triggered government scrutiny.
According to the AP, the settlement would have Live Nation pay a fine of up to $280 million and divest at least 13 venues to give competitors more opportunity. But several states’ Attorneys General involved in the lawsuit are not appeased by the settlement.
Monopoly laws do NOT only apply to human necessities. They apply to all businesses. There is a reason for that.
This isn’t just that consumers are willing to pay way too much for tickets. This is that TM owns both the venues and the ticketing system, meaning that if an artist wants to perform for their fans they are forced to use a TM venue. If an artist tries to use an independent venue, they get blacklisted from TM venues. If a venue is independent, TM will blacklist artists who try to use that venue.
Why are you pushing so hard for a company who actively makes life worse for normal people?
Also, circling back to my original point, I think entertainment actually is a basic human necessity. Making it so expensive that normal people have to go into debt just to have it in their lives should be fought against.