Klobuchar accuses Ticketmaster of ‘monopoly’ power over ticketing industry
Samantha-Jo Roth
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Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) accused Ticketmaster of having monopoly power over the ticketing industry during a Senate hearing on Tuesday.
Senators questioned executives from Ticketmaster‘s parent company, Live Nation Entertainment, at the Judiciary Committee hearing two months after the company canceled sales for Taylor Swift‘s new tour.
In her opening statement, Klobuchar, who chairs the Senate’s antitrust subcommittee, decried the market consolidation in the live entertainment industry.
“You can’t have too much consolidation, something that, unfortunately for this country, as an ode to Taylor Swift, I will say we know ‘all too well,'” she said.
Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), the ranking member, followed up by joking in another homage to Swift that he had been hoping to chair the Senate committee but that Klobuchar was the committee “cheer captain, and I’m in the bleachers.”
Joe Berchtold, the president and CFO of Live Nation Entertainment; Jack Groetzinger, CEO of ticketing platform SeatGeek; and five other witnesses addressed the committee.
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In opening remarks, Berchtold addressed what he said are misconceptions about the live concert industry and what the ticket seller is able to control.
“Primary ticketing companies, including Ticketmaster, do not set ticket prices, do not decide how many tickets go on sale and when they go on sale, do not set service fees,” he said during the hearing.
“We do not use algorithms to set prices,” he said.
Groetzinger told the committee that Ticketmaster and Live Nation’s sway over the ticketing industry has created a situation in which venues are pressured to engage in exclusive contracts.
“Live Nation may say that there’s never been more competition in ticketing. We at SeatGeek appreciate that compliment, but it is a far cry from the competition that should exist in an open market where companies can compete fairly on the merits of their offering,” he said at the hearing.
Klobuchar echoed these remarks. “This is all a definition of monopoly because Live Nation is so powerful that it doesn’t even need to exert pressure, it doesn’t need to threaten because people just fall in line,” she said.
Ticketmaster’s website glitched during a presale for verified fans during unprecedented traffic, leading the retailer to cancel the general ticket sale. The response from disappointed fans led to thousands of letters to the DOJ calling for an investigation into the company. The website attributed the problem to more demand than it could handle, as well as bot attacks.
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After the Swift ticket troubles in November, a New York Times report revealed that the Department of Justice has been investigating Ticketmaster’s parent company, Live Nation Entertainment.
(Disclosure: The Washington Examiner is owned by the Anschutz Corporation, a firm that also owns the Anschutz Entertainment Group, a competitor of Ticketmaster.)