Even just removing dynamic pricing, prohibiting ticket resales from going above original price, and removing extra fees (for upgrades and resales) will solve most of the issues.
I get it, but if they own the major venues in every town...they can still set their own prices.
The ticket companies shouldn't have ownership of the venue.
Pearl Jam fought them for years but had to stop because they owned every stadium and large venue, and that was 30+ years ago when they were just one company.
I've never been to a rock concert because I've heard precisely one story from someone who truly had a great time compared to what they might have had in a smaller venue and that was because they had good seats.
If the amount of enjoyment you're going to get out of a band is directly proportional to how much you're willing to pay, fuck that.
Other than pure corruption, there's a lot of issues with plain old tech illiteracy. Going to bat against a legal team specifically trained to talk circles around aging justices and politicians is a real losing formula. This was on full display during the Cambridge Analytica trial.
Hey, we've gotten a series of pretty big wins from Lina Khan - yea, a lot of shit is broken and it'll take a while to fix it... but some people really are trying.
I think Congress would have to pass regulation to see any improvement and a reasonable level of competition. If this breakup just results in regional monopolies instead of national ones with the same exclusionary contracts with venues, it'll result in a distinction without a difference.
Yes, obviously they broke the settlement that allowed the merger in the first place r.e. exclusionary contracts, but if they break up the company, they'll be allowing the successor companies to set up exclusionary contracts themselves.
They mention every company you listed in the article…
“Biden’s Justice Department has already filed twin monopolization cases against Google and in March sued Apple Inc. for allegedly thwarting innovation on its iPhone. The Federal Trade Commission, which jointly enforces the antitrust laws, is seeking to force Meta Platforms Inc. to sell off its Instagram and WhatsApp units and sued Amazon last year for monopolization of online marketplace services.”
This is helpful, thank you. I was only able to read the first paragraph or so before it cut out and said I needed to make an account, so I just stopped there.