Republicans and Democrats Agree: This Monopoly Is Simply Too Big
Ten attorneys general joined the DOJ’s antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation/Ticketmaster this week, marking another broad bipartisan effort to reign in monopolies.
by Paul Blest, More Perfect Union
The attorneys general of ten additional states joined the DOJ’s bid to break up Live Nation Entertainment’s monopoly this week — and most of them, such as Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach and Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, are hardline conservative Republicans who agree with the Biden administration on little else.
In addition to Kobach and Rokita, the attorneys general of Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Mexico, South Dakota, Utah, and Vermont joined 30 other AGs in a lawsuit to break up Ticketmaster and Live Nation, which merged in 2010. Of the 10, eight are Republicans, while two — Charity Clark of Vermont and Raúl Torrez of New Mexico — are Democrats. The new filings allege that Ticketmaster and Live Nation violate state antitrust laws in these jurisdictions as well as federal law.
The broad bipartisan effort to break up Ticketmaster reflects the growing consensus that the company has an effective monopoly over the live entertainment industry, and the negative consequences of that for almost everyone else.
“Competition is vital to a healthy economy, including in the live music industry,” Clark, the Vermont Attorney General, said in a statement. “Live Nation-Ticketmaster has engaged in anticompetitive conduct that has ensured its dominance in the live concert and ticketing markets – at the expense of Vermont consumers, workers, and businesses. Their conduct makes live music less accessible for fans, artists, and the industry that supports them, and that is a shame.”
The addition of so many states is notable because many of those same states are often at odds with the Biden administration. Kobach, for example, has previously sued the Biden administration over student loan forgiveness, labor rights for farmworkers, healthcare for DACA recipients, and more.
In the amended complaint filed this week, Kobach’s office alleges that Ticketmaster “caused harm to the State of Kansas and ultimately harm fans, venues, promoters, and artists across Kansas by increasing costs and prices, and reducing choice, innovation, and quality.”
The coalition of unlikely allies suing Ticketmaster mirrors support for other aspects of the Biden administration’s antitrust agenda, and for antitrust principles more broadly.
The DOJ’s landmark lawsuit against Google over its search engine and ad market monopoly — which was decided in favor of the DOJ earlier this month — was filed during the Trump administration. Between that lawsuit and a related case led by Colorado, the effort to declare that Google is operating an illegal monopoly was backed by the attorneys general of 52 states and territories.
Despite legal setbacks for the Federal Trade Commission’s ban on noncompete agreements, which depress wages and restrict workers from finding better jobs, there’s bipartisan Senate legislation to crack down on noncompetes. And on Friday, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and eight state attorneys general, including Democratic North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein and his Republican counterpart in Tennessee, Jonathan Skrmetti, filed a lawsuit in a federal court in North Carolina against the software company RealPage alleging price-fixing.
Live Nation/Ticketmaster, for their part, dismissed the 10 more states joining the DOJ’s lawsuit. “There is nothing new in the Amended Complaint — the lawsuit still won’t solve the issues fans care about relating to ticket prices, service fees, and access to in-demand shows,” a Live Nation spokesperson told The Hill this week. “We look forward to sharing more facts as the case progresses.”
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