Sens. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., leaders of a Senate Judiciary Committee that oversees competition policy and antitrust issues, are pressing the Department of Justice to examine Ticketmaster and Live Nation's potentially anticompetitive practices.
"For too long, Live Nation and Ticketmaster have wielded monopoly power anticompetitively, harming fans and artists alike," the senators wrote in a letter to Jonathan Kanter, the assistant attorney general for the Antitrust Division.
Ticketmaster merged with Live Nation in 2010.
The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust, and Consumer Rights held a hearing last month to examine Ticketmaster's role in the ticketing industry after a presale debacle last year stranded thousands of Taylor Swift fans who wanted tickets to her show.
Several of Swift's fans have filed lawsuits against Ticketmaster claiming antitrust violations, among other things.
"We recently held a bipartisan hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee at which the president of Live Nation testified under oath, as did other industry participants, including an artist, a secondary market ticketing company, a promoter, and industry experts. ... As an initial matter, other than Live Nation's executive, every witness at our hearing testified that Live Nation is harming America's music industry," the senators wrote.
They added: "Live Nation's responses amount to 'trust us.' We believe that is wholly insufficient."
Live Nation President Joe Berchtold said at the hearing that bot-driven ticket scalping was part of the issue for the Swift presale debacle and said the company believed the ticketing business "has never been more competitive."
The senators urged Kanter to take action if the DOJ determines that Ticketmaster has "walled itself off from competitive pressure at the expense of the industry and fans."
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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