Those tweaks were not enough to assuage lawmakers and advocacy groups, especially in the wake of high-profile ticket sales debacles.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., chair of the Senate Judiciary antitrust subcommittee, voiced alarm in November 2022 over the combined 70% control over ticket sales by Ticketmaster and Live Nation.
“In truth, there is no other choice,” for buying and selling tickets, Klobuchar said at the time, describing the company as a monopoly and asserting that it’s been quietly buying up venues and arenas. “It is a vertical integration. That is why we are pushing the Justice Department to look at this and to look at that consent decree, of which they have power over.”
Live Nation at the time defended its business practices and the “competitive nature” of the industry, which it asserted the DOJ recognized.
“For the past 12 years Live Nation has operated under a consent decree that among other things seeks to prevent anticompetitive leveraging of Live Nation promoted content to advantage Ticketmaster. Pursuant to the amended decree voluntarily entered in 2020, Live Nation’s compliance is monitored by a former federal judge,” the company said at the time. “There never has been and is not now any evidence of systemic violations of the consent decree. It remains against Live Nation policy to threaten venues that they won’t get Live Nation shows if they do not use Ticketmaster, and Live Nation does not reroute content as retaliation for a lost ticketing deal.”
