Ticketmaster is once again trying to game the system.
As the Trump administration moves toward a September 27 deadline for releasing a ticket industry reform blueprint, the company is lobbying Washington to impose regulations that would crush its smaller competitors and tighten its grip on fans.
In this populist moment, there is a lot of talk about whether “big is bad” — that is, if companies that have a significant amount of market share are inherently problematic.
The answer to that question is that no, they are not inherently immoral. Many of them are true, heroic free-market success stories.
That said, many companies today get big not because of market ingenuity but because of crony capitalism. And that’s the problem that the Trump administration is repeatedly trying to solve.
There is nothing wrong with companies being successful. But a conglomerate being better than everyone else because it had its friends in the government box out its competitors is another story. And unfortunately, there is an endless number of examples of such cases.
Like many tech giants, Facebook has long called for regulation of the tech industry — because it knows that it could sustain such regulations and that its competitors couldn’t.
FanDuel and DraftKings, which control 70% of the sports betting marketplace, have repeatedly lobbied the federal government and state decision makers to ban their smaller competitors in the fantasy sports industry.
And now, Live Nation — the parent company of Ticketmaster — is trying to crush its rivals in the resale ticket marketplace.
In response to the Trump administration’s call for suggestions on ticketing reform, it is asking the Department of Justice, Federal Trade Commission, and Treasury Departments to impose price controls in the ticket resale marketplace.
Live Nation wants the Trump administration to believe that it has consumers in mind with its advocacy efforts — that, by pushing for a 20% resale cap, it is trying to perform a public service for American families. But that’s far from the case.
As one reporter put it, a price cap would “conveniently put their competition out of business.”
Live Nation must know this. The reality is that the $22 billion corporation that controls roughly 70 to 80% of the U.S. ticket marketplace can survive the price controls. Its smaller rivals wouldn’t be able to.
That appears to be by design. The price controls would help Ticketmaster get closer to 100% market share, controlling the entirety of the primary and resale ticket marketplaces.
Live Nation has already been sued by the Department of Justice and 40 states for ripping off fans. It’s no dummy, and if the allegations in the suit are to be believed, it’s certainly not afraid to take questionable actions to advance its business interests.
Thankfully, though, the Trump administration is just as smart as the company’s executives. That is why it is currently suing the monopoly. President Donald Trump even issued an executive order in March with the goal of reforming the ticket industry. At the top of the administration’s list are ticket-scalping bots that proliferate Ticketmaster’s platform (and enrich Ticketmaster financially).
The Trump administration has already made impressive steps toward making the industry more affordable for fans. For example, in mid-August, the FTC sued a broker that it accused of scalping, leading FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson to boldly assert, “President Trump made it clear in his March Executive Order that unscrupulous middlemen who harm fans and jack up prices through anticompetitive methods will hear from us.”
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As the White House moves closer to its self-imposed September 27 deadline for releasing a ticket industry reform blueprint, the administration should resist Ticketmaster’s rent-seeking appeals. Protecting open and competitive markets, not price controls written by the monopoly that stands to benefit from them, is the real way to lower costs and expand access.
Resisting this cronyism would show that Washington is serious about standing with consumers and competition, not entrenched corporate giants. And that’s what Draining the Swamp is all about.
Ken Blackwell is an adviser to the Family Research Council and a chair at the America First Policy Institute. He is a former Mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio, Ohio Treasurer and Secretary of State, and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Commission. He is also a former member of the Trump transition team.