Source: United States Senator for Minnesota Amy Klobuchar
WASHINGTON – On CBS Sunday Morning, U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust, and Consumer Rights, highlighted the ongoing need to address the problems in America’s ticketing markets.
Klobuchar recently organized a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing after reports of significant service failures and delays on Ticketmaster’s website in November that left fans unable to purchase concert tickets for Taylor Swift’s new tour.
Additionally, last week, Klobuchar and Senator Mike Lee (R-UT), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust, and Consumer Rights, wrote a letter to Live Nation President and Chief Financial Officer Joe Berchtold on the lack of competition in the ticketing and live entertainment industry.
A transcript of Klobuchar’s appearance on CBS Sunday Morning is given below. Video of the full segment is available HERE.
RITA BRAVER: The fans who are suing have one key supporter. Are you kind of rooting for them?
SENATOR KLOBUCHAR: Of course, I’m always rooting for people that are taking on big monopolies.
RITA BRAVER: Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat, charges that Ticketmaster and its parent company Live Nation Entertainment, a concert promoter, do constitute a monopoly. Controlling 70 percent of the big concert ticket market, leaving fans and artists alike nowhere else to go.
SENATOR KLOBUCHAR: They have actually started buying arenas. But for the arenas that they don’t own, they tend to lock in on three or five or seven-year contracts so that those arenas are boxed out of using competitors. So picture this, there they are with the monopoly on the ticketing, then they’ve got the promotion, then they’ve got the arenas.
RITA BRAVER: And as Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Antitrust Subcommittee, Klobuchar called a high-profile hearing a week and a half ago to question whether Live Nation Entertainment needs to be broken up.
SENATOR KLOBUCHAR: Taylor Swift is just one example. Whether it’s Bruce Springsteen or BTS or Bad Bunny or in the past Pearl Jam or the Pixies, fans, artists and venues are facing real issues with Live Nation.
[…]
RITA BRAVER: More than a decade ago when Live Nation and Ticketmaster first wanted to merge, there was so much concern about competition that the Justice Department insisted on a consent decree that would forbid the company from engaging in anticompetitive conduct.
SENATOR KLOBUCHAR: Well, they had violations of that, clear violations. And because of that, they have basically extended that content decree. It keeps going. But whatever they have done, it hasn’t been enough.
[…]
RITA BRAVER: And with Ticketmaster starting sales for Beyonce’s upcoming tour tomorrow, Washington is watching.
SENATOR KLOBUCHAR: This is an incredible gift that we have in America, which is this music industry. Something we have literally given the world. And when you only have one entity, basically, ticketing all the big events and letting fans in the door, that gives them inordinate power.
###