Michael Doerrer, Author at American Antitrust Institute

by Michael Doerrer on January 25, 2023

“A Very Traditional Monopoly”: AAI Expertise Dominates the News

AAI’s Vice President for Legal Advocacy, Kathleen Brandish, delivered compelling testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the Ticketmaster-Live Nation monopoly. The hearing – the first convened in the new 118th Congress – was entitled That’s the Ticket: Promoting Competition and Protecting Consumers in Live Entertainment.

In her testimony, Bradish drew on AAI’s substantial and highly-cited competition analysis, describing Ticketmaster-Live Nation as a “very traditional monopoly” that dominates the supply chain – limiting competition and hurting artists, consumers, and market innovation. She urged the DOJ to take a new enforcement action that seeks effective structural remedies, through, for example, Section 2 of the Sherman Act.

Bradish also focused on policy solutions to address the Ticketmaster monopoly, including strong antitrust enforcement, legislation to enhance and clarify U.S. antitrust laws, and potential “rules of the road” to increase ticketing transparency.

Following the hearing, AAI President Diana Moss, along with Bradish, were called upon to offer more insight and analysis on the Ticketmaster monopoly by media outlets across the United States and abroad. AAI’s legal, economic, and policy expertise was clearly in high demand. Here’s a small sample from across the international media landscape of what AAI had to say on this critical consumer issue.

AAI on CNN

AAI on CNBC

AAI on Good Morning America

AAI on NBC News

AAI featured in Bloomberg

AAI in Vox

AAI in the Intercept

AAI in the Globe Echo World News

AAI on Marketplace

AAI on PBS NewsHour

AAI on NewsNation

You can watch opening testimony from AAI’s Kathleen Bradish here (courtesy of Forbes Breaking News).

by Michael Doerrer on January 17, 2023

AAI’s Resources on the Live Nation-Tickemaster Monopoly

The American Antitrust Institute (AAI) is the leading authority on the impacts of the Ticketmaster monopoly. For more than a decade, we’ve been producing objective, detailed analysis that shows how a lack of competition in the live music space hurts music fans and consumers generally.

AAI has led the call for the breakup of the Live Nation-Ticketmaster monopoly. Our research and advocacy centered on the live events industry has been invaluable to legislators and policymakers.

We produced the first analysis of the ineffectiveness of the remedies in the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) 2010 consent decree settling the merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster. And when the DOJ amended the consent decree in 2020, AAI wrote the leading critique of DOJ’s decision to extend ineffective remedies rather than seeking structural relief by challenging the consummated merger or bringing a monopolization case.

Our work on this issue continues. In the meantime, here are some key AAI resources on the live events sector.

by Michael Doerrer on January 11, 2023

AAI’s Diana Moss Featured in CNN Reporting on New Thinking by DOJ on Antitrust Enforcement

AAI President Diana Moss was recently featured in new CNN reporting about fresh thinking and new approaches to antitrust enforcement at the U.S. Department of Justice. CNN reporter Brian Fung’s report “The US government is still trying to find ways to regulate Big Tech” focuses on novel approaches top antitrust officials at DOJ might take to tackle anticompetitive practices by Big Tech.

The CNN report explores whether DOJ might be entering a new era of antitrust enforcement. While it may be premature to answer that bigger question, Dr. Moss offered the perspective that recent challenges to mergers by DOJ have “beefed up the powers of antitrust enforcers, who can now vigorously pursue other cases where anticompetitive behavior may arguably harm workers.”

by Michael Doerrer on January 11, 2023

An Interview with AAI’s Diana Moss on the Ticketmaster Debacle

AAI President Diana Moss was recently interviewed at length by Vulture magazine reporter Justin Curto about the ongoing pain Ticketmaster’s monopoly creates for music fans and consumers generally.

As the article, “What Would Breaking Up Ticketmaster and Live Nation Actually Do?” notes, the AAI has been focused on Ticketmaster for years — long before its merger with Live Nation made matters even worse of consumers.

“Dr. Diana Moss has been advocating for the companies’ breakup for years. As president of the American Antitrust Institute, she has had her eye on Ticketmaster since before the merger — when it already occupied an outsize share of the ticketing market…The AAI loudly criticized the merger and has called for a remedy following reports that Live Nation coerced venues into using Ticketmaster, which the Department of Justice later corroborated. Now, Moss says, Swift fans’ issues with Ticketmaster’s online platform during the presale are just a symptom of an obvious competition issue.”

by Michael Doerrer on January 2, 2023

AAI Welcomes Erika Douglas and Amanda Lewis to the AAI Advisory Board, Adds Expertise in Competition and Consumer Protection Law and Policy

On January 3, 2023, AAI announced two new members of the AAI Advisory Board. Erika Douglas is Associate Professor of Law at Temple University, Beasley School of Law. Amanda Lewis is with the Washington D.C.-based firm of Cuneo, Gilbert, & LaDuca, LLP.

“We are delighted that Erika and Amanda have joined the AAI Advisory Board,” said AAI President, Diana Moss. “They bring vitally important expertise and perspective in competition and consumer protection law and policy to AAI’s brain trust and their insights will be invaluable in helping AAI frame our initiatives,” she added. AAI’s volunteer Advisory Board consists of outstanding experts in the fields of antitrust and consumer protection law, economics, and business in the United States and abroad.

Erika M. Douglas is an Associate Professor at the Temple University Beasley School of Law. Her scholarship focuses on the intersection of antitrust, data privacy, and intellectual property law, with particular emphasis on the application of legal theory to new technology. Professor Douglas teaches New Technology Regulation, Patents, and Contracts. Prior to joining Temple, Professor Douglas practiced antitrust and technology law at the Silicon Valley office of Covington & Burling LLP. While in practice, she represented several Fortune 100 technology companies in complex antitrust matters and investigations.

Amanda Lewis is with Cuneo, Gilbert, & LaDuca, LLP. She was formerly with the Federal Trade Commission, where she worked as an attorney in the Bureau of Competition. At the FTC, as an attorney in the Mergers IV division, Ms. Lewis worked on the Staples/Office Depot and Sysco/U.S. Foods litigation teams, as well as numerous other merger and conduct investigations. While at the FTC, Ms. Lewis served for over two and a half years as a Counsel-Detailee to the Antitrust Subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee. In this role, Ms. Lewis worked extensively on the House Subcommittee’s Investigation of Competition in Digital Markets, for which Ms. Lewis led the portion of the investigation related to Amazon.

by Michael Doerrer on December 14, 2022

AAI Announces Kathleen Bradish as Vice President for Legal Advocacy

WASHINGTON D.C., December 14, 2022—Kathleen Bradish will join AAI’s Staff as Vice President for Legal Advocacy on December 19, 2022. She will succeed Randy Stutz, who is moving to public service in 2023 after a 13-year tenure with AAI, including leadership of AAI’s legal competition advocacy program since 2019.

AAI President, Diana Moss, stated: “We look forward to a seamless hand-off of AAI’s VP for Legal Advocacy role to Kathleen Bradish. Her deep experience in public and private antitrust enforcement adds valuable capability to support AAI’s critical pro-enforcement mission. We are delighted that she is joining our team.”

“Randy Stutz has played a major, valuable role in building AAI’s highly regarded and effective legal competition advocacy program,” Moss also said. “We will miss Randy and wish him well as he moves to public service at the start of the new year.”

Kathleen Bradish has been an antitrust lawyer, in both private practice and government, for 17 years. She has extensive experience with conduct cases and mergers, with particular experience in the healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors, and in international competition matters. Ms. Bradish joined the law firm of Cleary Gottlieb after law school and was appointed counsel in 2014. From mid-2015 to late 2018, Ms. Bradish was Assistant Chief and International Counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Antitrust Division.

At DOJ, Ms. Bradish served as deputy chief handling the Antitrust Division’s international relations, representing the Division’s views on antitrust enforcement abroad. She advised case teams on issues affecting cooperation with foreign antitrust enforcers and provided guidance to leadership on competition issues arising abroad and affecting the United States. Ms. Bradish also represented the Antitrust Division in trade issues, including leading the negotiations of competition chapters in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement and in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. Ms. Bradish returned to Cleary Gottlieb as Counsel in 2018.

Pamela Gilbert, Chair of the AAI Board of Directors noted “Kathleen’s deep expertise will further AAI’s substantial, positive impact on pro-competition enforcement outcomes in numerous areas.”

Kathleen is excited to bring her varied experience in antitrust enforcement and competition policy to AAI and to play a central role in furthering its vital mission to promote competition. Kathleen is a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School.

by Michael Doerrer on October 7, 2022

TechTarget Cites AAI’s Work on Billion Dollar Mergers and Merger Filing Fee Legislation

TechTarget published an October 7, 2022 article, Experts torn on impact of antitrust bills passed by House, extensively citing AAI on the importance of more resources for the U.S. antitrust agencies. From the article:

Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act gets thumbs-up

Merger filing fees represent an important funding source for antitrust enforcement agencies, meaning that updating those fees would provide the agencies with much-needed additional resources for more vigorous antitrust law enforcement, said Diana Moss, president of the American Antitrust Institute.

“This bolsters and supports the agencies’ ability to do more thorough first looks through the second request process — to move those cases that raise competition concerns to the investigatory process and all the way through to the resolution of those cases, whether it’s going to federal court to litigate them or hammer out settlement agreements,” she said.

In addition, the Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act creates three new categories for merger deals over $1 billion, which Moss applauded as a “great development.”

Merger deals over $1 billion tend to face more challenges on anti-competitive grounds, but they also tend to be deals that reach settlement rather than being resolved through other enforcement means such as litigation, according to an analysis paper by Moss.

Lumping all $1 billion-plus deals into one category “masks important information about how enforcement levels and trends potentially vary by different sizes of billion-dollar mergers,” Moss noted in her analysis paper. Under existing law, all deals over $1 billion are included in a single category, while deals under $1 billion fall into multiple categories.

“It’s long overdue to have those categories,” Moss said.

by Michael Doerrer on September 22, 2022

Law360 Cites AAI on Competition Concerns Involving Airline Joint Ventures Amidst the American-JetBlue Trial

In a September 22, 2022 article, Breaking Down The DOJ’s American-JetBlue Antitrust Trial, Law360 cited AAI’s longstanding concerns over high concentration in domestic passenger air service and the emergence of joint ventures as a workaround to further mergers. From the article:

Diana L. Moss, president of the American Antitrust Institute, said this case is an “important inflection point in domestic commercial passenger aviation,” particularly when air carriers have increasingly turned to airline joint venture agreements as a strategy to maintain or expand their positions in a heavily consolidated market.

“Further proposed airline JV agreements can be expected, so the outcome of the government’s case in the NEA matter is important,” Moss said. “Further, the NEA is only one type of airline JV on a broader spectrum of JV coordination. Some of those involve coordination with full immunization from the antitrust laws and raise similar, if not more severe, competition concerns. The outcome of the NEA case should therefore affect how the DOJ and DOT think about these other types of airline JVs.”

by Michael Doerrer on September 15, 2022

S&P Global Cites AAI on Emerging Competition Issues Involving Digital Healthcare Information Technology Platforms

A September 15, 2022 S&P Global article, DOJ’s UnitedHealth-Change challenge to hinge on competitor data, takes up the competition issues raised by the merger of UnitedHealth-Change. The article cites AAI’s Diana Moss on healthcare and digital markets. From the article:

The ability to harness data by processing and enriching it is going to be a competitive concern that arises more and more, according to Diana L. Moss, president of the American Antitrust Institute.

Over the last 20 years there has been an “incredible amount” of consolidation in the U.S. healthcare markets, Moss said in an interview.

“This has created a supply chain with very few competitors in critical segments and the effect of that is to increase incentives to exercise market power against medical providers,” she said.

by Michael Doerrer on September 1, 2022

AAI Calls Out Ticketmaster Monopoly on NPR’s 1A, Highlights Importance of a Break-up Remedy

AAI’s Diana Moss appeared on NPR’s 1A program: Does Ticketmaster have a monopoly on live events? on August 31, 2022. Moss discussed the harmful effects of the Live-Nation/Ticketmaster monopoly over live entertainment on competition and consumers. On the show, Moss pushed back on Live Nation’s claims that the firm has a low market share and highlighted the company’s practices that are designed to stifle competition. She also highlighted the missed opportunity for the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to bring a monopolization or consummated merger challenge in early 2020 when it re-opened the 2010 consent decree. AAI wrote to the DOJ at that time, emphasizing that the vertical merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster was illegal and that evidence that the behemoth company has violated the terms of the decree dictated stronger action from the government.

From the NPR 1A website:

“Bruce Springsteen built his reputation on being a man of the people. That’s part of why some of his fans were especially aghast at the ticket prices for his upcoming tour, which in some cases reached upwards of thousands of dollars each.

Dynamic pricing is the reason why. It’s a relatively new pricing system used by live events company Ticketmaster that sets prices based on demand. The more people waiting in line for tickets, the higher the prices go.

Bruce Springsteen, Harry Styles, Taylor Swift, and other popular artists have taken advantage of the system. It puts more money in their pockets rather than those of scalpers. But many fans aren’t happy with the ballooning costs. It’s the latest controversy surrounding the company, which has long attracted antitrust criticism.

Live Nation, Ticketmaster’s parent company, owns concert venues, promotes tours, and sells tickets. Some say that leaves little room for competition, hurting fans, artists, and the industry at large.

Is Live Nation a monopoly? Who would that hurt? And what’s being done to address the lack of competition?

Guests: Diana Moss, Economist and President, American Antitrust Institute; Gary Witt, CEO, Pabst Theater Group; James Skoufis, State Senator, New York (D-Hudson Valley); and Joe Berchtold President and CFO, Live Nation”

Michael Doerrer

AAI Research

AAI Advocacy

AAI Impact

From the NPR 1A website:

Footer