Brian Berry, executive director of the Ticket Policy Forum, a coalition of America’s leading ticket marketplaces and competitors to Ticketmaster, issued the following statement in response to the jury verdict in the Live Nation-Ticketmaster trial:
“This verdict validates what fans, venues, artists, and our member companies have long experienced: Live Nation-Ticketmaster is not just dominant, it is an illegally abusive monopoly. Finally, the monopoly is being held accountable in court. Now is the time for lawmakers to step up and fight back, too.
“Thanks to the unprecedented leadership of a bipartisan coalition of more than 30 state attorneys general, a jury has now confirmed that the Ticketmaster monopoly makes live events less competitive and more expensive. This verdict must lead to structural remedies because fans, artists, and venues deserve an open market with real competition, and nothing short of breaking up Live Nation and Ticketmaster will suffice.
“As Live Nation undoubtedly appeals, lawmakers should beware that the company is redoubling its lobbying efforts for policies like government-imposed price controls on ticket resale competitors. These Live Nation-Ticketmaster policies would cement this monopoly’s control even further and risk undermining the court’s verdict by throttling competing ticket sellers while allowing Ticketmaster to raise prices as high as it wishes. If the Live Nation-Ticketmaster monopoly supports a policy, lawmakers should oppose it. State attorneys general and a jury stood up to this monopoly; now, state legislatures should make sure Ticketmaster can’t rewrite the rules and crush the last remaining competition it faces.”
For more information on the trial, see Ticket Policy Forum’s trial brief here.