After a sales fiasco over Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, senators reamed out Live Nation and Ticketmaster for acting like a monopoly. “Ticketmaster ought to look in the mirror and say, ‘I’m the problem, it’s me,’” said Senator Richard Blumenthal.
Berchtold said that the industry’s “standard practice” is to negotiate “having long-term exclusive agreements with primary ticketing companies,” something the company has been loath to spell out in the past. He also acknowledged that the DOJ had “alleged” six instances of the type of pressure on clients that is supposed to be against company policy and the consent decree.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., center, greets musician Clyde Lawrence, and Kathleen Bradish, of the American Antitrust Institute, during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing titled Thats the Ticket: Promoting Competition and Protecting Consumers in Live Entertainment, in Hart Building on Tuesday, January 24, 2023.Berchtold had few allies in the room.
noted that it seemed odd that the company’s program to prevent bots was so weak. “You told me yesterday you have a hard time distinguishing between a bot attack and a consumer,” Blackburn said to Berchtold. “But the local power company down here, that is not the billion-dollar company you are—they can tell when they’ve got a bad actor in their system.
When confronted with the company’s market share in large sports venues, Berchtold was matter-of-fact: “There is no mystery—we have the best product,” he said, echoing a comment thatLive Nation’s CEO, has made in previous earnings calls for the company. That statement appeared to bristleCEO of ticket retailer SeatGeek, who was also testifying before the committee. “We don’t know who has the best product because there is not a competition,” he said.
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