The lack of competition in the American live entertainment ticketing industry is set to be examined in an upcoming hearing of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust, and Consumer Rights.
The hearing, titled “That’s the Ticket: Promoting Competition and Protecting Consumers in Live Entertainment,” will be held at 10am on Tuesday, January 24.
Growing concerns about the lack of competition in this multi-billion-dollar industry came to a head in November 2022 when Ticketmaster mishandled ticket sales for pop star Taylor Swift’s highly anticipated “Eras” tour.
READ: Ticketmaster website crashes after 'unprecedented demand' for Taylor Swift tickets
Ticketmaster’s parent company Live Nation Entertainment Inc has held a monopoly on ticket sales in the US since Ticketmaster’s merger with Live Nation in 2010.
The Department of Justice had already launched an anti-trust investigation into Ticketmaster and its parent company, according to reports citing people with knowledge of the matter, which was highlighted following the Swift ticket fiasco.
Judiciary Subcommittee Committee chairwoman US senator Amy Klobuchar (Democrat, Minnesota) said the issues within America’s ticketing industry were made painfully obvious when Ticketmaster’s website failed hundreds of thousands of fans hoping to purchase tickets for Swift’s new tour, but these problems were not new.
Klobuchar added that, for too long, consumers have faced high fees, long waits, and website failures, and Ticketmaster’s dominant market position meant the company faces inadequate pressure to innovate and improve.
“At next week’s hearing, we will examine how consolidation in the live entertainment and ticketing industries harms customers and artists alike,” she said.
“Without competition to incentivize better services and fair prices, we all suffer the consequences.”
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