By Staff Writer, Celebrity Access | A coalition of advocacy organizations, led by the American Economic Liberties Project, has launched a campaign calling on the U.S. Department of Justice to unravel the merger between entertainment giant Live Nation and their ticketing subsidiary Ticketmaster.
The coalition, which also includes Sports Fans Coalition, Fight Corporate Monopolies, More Perfect Union, Fan Freedom, the Consumer Federation of America, the National Consumers League, and the Artist Rights Alliance, accused the live entertainment giant of anti-competitive conduct and demanded that the DOJ take steps to break up the merger.
The campaign’s multimedia push includes a policy brief from the American Economic Liberties Project, along with an explanatory video from More Perfect Union staring the noted author and journalist Cory Doctorow. The campaign also includes grassroots action in the form of a letter writing campaign encouraging artists, fans, and venue operators across the U.S. to share their stories of Ticketmaster’s allegedly anticompetitive conduct with Justice Department officials.
Concerns about Live Nation’s control over the North American live events industry are nothing new and many independent promoters raised alarms in 2009 when the two companies first announced plans for a merger.
Those critics also included the United States Department of Justice, who cleared the merger only after imposing multiple restrictions, including licensing their software to rival Anschutz Entertainment Group and the sale of the ticketing platform Paciolan.
The Justice Department also imposed a ten-year consent decree that forbade Live Nation from leveraging its market influence against venues that opted to contract with other ticketing vendors. That consent decree was extended by another five years in 2020.
However, according to the coalition, those measures have been insufficient for Live Nation to become a dominant player in the market, often to the detriment of consumers.
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Read the rest of the article here:
https://celebrityaccess.com/2022/10/20/activist-coalition-calls-on-the-doj-to-cancel-the-live-nation-ticketmaster-merger/
[Thanks to Alex Teitz for contributing this article! http://www.femmusic.com]
October 27, 2022| Music-Related Business| Barb Dye