Live Nation-Ticketmaster’s Promises Are No Substitute for Break Up
Washington, D.C. — In response to Live Nation-Ticketmaster’s announcement at the White House today, which unveiled a voluntary all-pricing policy, the Break Up Ticketmaster Coalition released the following statement.
“Live Nation-Ticketmaster’s announcement today is a half-hearted attempt to ward off a looming DOJ investigation into addressing the real issue–its monopoly power over live events,” The Break Up Ticketmaster Coalition said in a statement. “Our own research has shown that Live Nation-Ticketmaster wields its market dominance to charge exorbitant fees on top of the actual ticket, with multiple reports of fees that cost more than a ticket itself. Make no mistake: being fully transparent about extorting consumers is still extortion in an anti-competitive market. Breaking up Live Nation-Ticketmaster is necessary to restore competition and fairness to eventgoers, artists, independent venue owners, and the entire live events industry.”
As part of its examination into how Live Nation-Ticketmaster has leveraged its market power over live events to profit from deceptive junk fees in ticketing, the Coalition has provided crucial data regarding junk fees in live events. Of the 131 concerts included in this data, the Coalition found that Ticketmaster makes up the vast majority of primary ticketing options, and charges an average total fee of 30.7%.
Although junk fees are not exclusive to the Ticketmaster platform, they became commonplace in live events because of Live Nation/Ticketmaster’s dominant position and a lack of competitive pressure in the market. Now as a result, fans are paying much more than they would be in an otherwise competitive market.
In October 2022, a broad coalition of allies launched #BreakUpTicketmaster, a campaign to urge the Department of Justice to investigate and unwind the Live Nation-Ticketmaster merger of 2010. So far, the Break Up Ticketmaster Coalition has organized over 100K concerned fans, artists, and independent venue owners that want to break Ticketmaster’s power over live events ticketing, artist promotion, and venue ownership.
Learn more about the Break Up Ticketmaster Coalition here.
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The American Economic Liberties Project works to ensure America’s system of commerce is structured to advance, rather than undermine, economic liberty, fair commerce, and a secure, inclusive democracy. Economic Liberties believes true economic liberty means entrepreneurs and businesses large and small succeed on the merits of their ideas and hard work; commerce empowers consumers, workers, farmers, and engineers instead of subjecting them to discrimination and abuse from financiers and monopolists; foreign trade arrangements support domestic security and democracy; and wealth is broadly distributed to support equitable political power.