Report: Live Nation, Ticketmaster Hope to Maintain Stranglehold of Industry By Restricting Resale

Entertainment giant Live Nation and its ticketing subsidiary Ticketmaster will do anything to hold onto their monopoly of the ticketing industry. Despite the ongoing antitrust lawsuit brought forth by the Department of Justice and 39 states plus the District of Columbia, the pair is working to reinforce its status by lobbying against the secondary market.

A new report was released earlier this month by the Chamber of Progress, detailing Live Nation and Ticketmaster’s “quiet but sweeping campaign” in state legislatures, helping hold onto its monopoly over the ticketing industry. According to the report, authored by Chamber of Progress’ Policy Analyst Aden Hizkiaz, Live Nation is attempting to restrict resale to hinder competition, limit consumer choice, and drive-up ticket prices.

The report notes that Live Nation is lobbying state houses to restrict the resale market by hiding anti-resale provisions in state legislations that address consumer harms, including bots, fraud, and speculative ticketing. In turn, this allows Live Nation to control how tickets are bought, sold, and transferred.

Live Nation has championed House Bill 2040 in Arizona, which included provisions that hurt the resale market, as well as Colorado’s “Trojan Horse Bill” — Senate Bill 23-060 — which targets fraud and initially would have allowed event operators to declare any tickets outside of its systems fraudulent. Live Nation also backed California Senate Bill 785, which claimed to promoter transparency but actually weakened the resale market by prohibiting speculative tickets, and influenced Maryland’s Senate Bill 539 — imposing strict regulations on resellers.

While it seems that these bills are consumer-friendly, the report points-out that Live Nation and Ticketmaster have a different agenda and urges legislators to remain vigilant against proposals that only aim to help Live Nation maintain its monopoly.

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“By weakening ticket procurement services, these measures ensure that Live Nation remains the dominant player in the
ticketing ecosystem, further entrenching its monopoly position through anticompetitive practices alleged in the DOJ complaint,” the report reads.

Additionally, the report pointed to customer data sharing. Originally, Maryland’s SB 539 included anticompetitive provisions, requiring resellers to share customer data with the ticket issues — which was usually Ticketmaster. This would have forced resellers to hand-over sensitive customer information to their largest competitor. Data sharing also helps deepen Live Nation’s monopoly, which the DOJ alleged in its complaint.

“Live Nation has ruthlessly campaigned to maintain its stranglehold over the entire ticketing ecosystem through anti-resale policies,” Chamber of Progress Vice President of Technology Policy Todd O’Boyle said in a statement. “State legislators should see this Trojan Horse strategy for what it is: bad for competition and bad for fans.”

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The report urges policymakers to enhance consumer protections in the live events ticketing market by supporting resale freedom laws. Already, several states have passed effective resale protection laws, including Connecticut’s Ticket Sales Transparency Act, Colorado’s Resale Consumer Protection Act, the Ticket Resale Rights Act in Virginia, and Arkansas’ Ticket Resale Law. These provide benefits to consumers by ensuring their rights to buy, sell, and transfer tickets — without any restrictions from primary sellers like Live Nation, the report notes.

In 2023, the resale market helped consumers save over $440 million, the American Consumer Institute reported.

It is crucial for policymakers to keep consumers at the forefront of their decisions, ensuring that laws genuinely empower fans rather than entrenching the power of monopolistic entities,” the report reads. “By fostering a competitive environment, legislators can protect the rights of all ticket buyers, paving the way for a healthier and more accessible live event industry.”

Read the full report here.

The antitrust suit, compiled in a document of over 100 pages, claims that Live Nation and Ticketmaster’s business model violates both federal and state laws in multiple ways, citing the pair’s anticompetitive conduct and monopolistic control of the industry.