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“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).

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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.”

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AAI Talks Live Nation-Ticketmaster Monopoly on PBS NewsHour and CNN This Morning, Says U.S. Needs Strong Antitrust Enforcement to Restore Competition for Music Fans and Artists

AAI President Diana Moss appeared this week on PBS NewsHour and CNN This Morning to discuss the Taylor Swift ticketing debacle. She explained that it is symptomatic of the harms wrought by the Live Nation-Ticketmaster monopoly since the merger in 2010. She explained how the company’s practices harm competition in concert promotion/venue markets, and in event ticketing. Consumers and artists pay the price with little to no choice, high ticket fees, and stifled innovation. Moss noted the need for a two-pronged solution–antitrust enforcement action to break up Live Nation-Ticketmaster to restore competition in live events and legislative efforts to establish the “rules of the road” on ticketing transparency and transferability. AAI’s resources and competition advocacy on competition in live events can be found here.

Watch the CNN clip below

 

Watch the PBS clip below

 

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AAI Supports Anticompetitive Exclusionary Conduct Prevention Act, New Antitrust Legislation Introduced by Senator Amy Klobuchar

AAI announced its support for the Anticompetitive Exclusionary Conduct Prevention Act, introduced on March 10, 2020 by Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN). Senator Klobuchar is the Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights.

The news release issued by Senator Klobuchar’s office explains that the new legislation “…deters anticompetitive abuses that distort the competitive process and harm consumers, innovation, and new business formation.” The Act “…prohibits anticompetitive exclusionary conduct that risks harm to the competitive process. It also makes reforms to improve antitrust enforcement across the board. The bill was cosponsored by Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Cory Booker (D-NJ).”

AAI President, Diana Moss stated in the new release that “AAI supports Senator Klobuchar’s bill to strengthen U.S. law to limit harmful conduct by dominant firms–an area of antitrust that has been largely unenforced for decades. The bill sets forth clear, strong, and needed criteria for policing conduct that is designed to drive rivals from markets. It should garner broad bi-partisan support from members of Congress who seek to protect our markets, competition, consumers, and workers.”