| Here's the latest on the fight to take on Ticketmaster: Back in 2024, the Department of Justice officially filed an antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation to break up their monopoly over the live entertainment industry. The case alleged that Live Nation relies on unlawful, anticompetitive conduct to exercise its monopolistic control over the live events industry — resulting in fans paying more in fees, artists having fewer opportunities to play concerts, smaller promoters getting squeezed out, and venues having fewer real choices for ticketing services. Sounds promising, right? That the government might actually secure a win on behalf of the people? Well, Trump just let them off the hook with the equivalent of a corporate pardon. His DOJ just issued a penalty that came out to about 1% of Live Nation's $25 billion in revenue last year — and they still get to tack on a 15% "Ticketmaster Tax" to your tickets. It was reported that a good buddy of Trump's — a former Live Nation board member — called him, urging him to settle the antitrust case. That's not accountability. It's a green light to keep doing exactly what they've been doing: jacking up prices, deprioritizing building a strong product and service, tricking fans with hidden fees, and harming employees, vendors, and artists in the process. What's more, during this lawsuit, internal messages between Live Nation employees were discovered that showed just how much pride they felt about charging fans so much money. "These people are so stupid," one employee joked, referring to one ticket package being priced at $199. "I almost feel bad taking advantage of them."
His co-worker replied: "I have VIP parking up to $250 lol." "Robbing them blind baby," the same employee wrote in another note on setting prices. "That's how we do." This corporate behavior is a slap in the face — and the President just excused it. We have to keep fighting back. And we need to break up Ticketmaster and Live Nation. I'm fighting hard to continue to take on concentrated corporate power like this and stop companies from getting away with ridiculously high prices and ridiculously crummy service. I've also got a bill — the Prohibiting Anticompetitive Mergers Act — to ban the biggest, most competition-crushing mergers, restore competition, and bring down prices for consumers. If you agree that we need to break up big corporate monopolies like this, please pitch in $100 or anything you can to support this work. Thanks for being a part of this, Elizabeth | 
No comments:
Post a Comment