WASHINGTON — A new report by Diana Moss, Vice President and Director of Competition Policy at the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI), warns that proposed state laws capping ticket resale prices and fees could decimate the resale ticket market and undermine federal antitrust enforcement against Live Nation-Ticketmaster. This will deliver a crushing blow to millions of live events fans in the U.S. and to the artists and sports teams that they support.
As the U.S. live music market approaches $20 billion in annual revenue, lawmakers across the country are advancing a wave of ticketing bills. Many of these legislative proposals go well beyond the boundaries of consumer protection to impose invasive economic regulation on the resale ticket market. PPI’s report, “State Regulation of the Resale Ticket Market: Depriving Fans of Choice and Jeopardizing Antitrust Enforcement,” concludes that bills that require transparency in ticket buying and ban deceptive practices will bootstrap competition. In contrast, price controls on resale tickets risk destabilizing the only competitive segment of the ticketing market and harming fans.
PPI’s report explains that that Live Nation-Ticketmaster’s entrenched monopoly is the root cause of dysfunction in the live events ecosystem. The company’s dominance spans control of roughly 75% of concert promotion and exclusive contracts with venues, and about 80% of primary ticketing.
“State legislation to cap resale ticket prices and fees targets the only market with competition, leaving the monopolized and broken primary ticket market to operate unfettered,” said Moss.
The resale market compensates for supply-and-demand imbalances in the primary market that result from underpricing and holding back large swaths of tickets. Imposing state-mandated price and fee caps on resale will only exacerbate Live Nation-Ticketmaster’s monopoly power and risks hobbling the only market where live events fans have real choice.
The PPI report comes as the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and 40 states and D.C. pursue a critically important, strong monopolization case against Live Nation-Ticketmaster. If successful, the government could seek structural remedies that break up the company to restore competition in primary ticketing. The report emphasizes that nothing short of a fully litigated trial on the merits of the case, and strong remedies, will adequately protect competition and consumers in ticketing.
Moss warns that aggressive state-level resale regulation could complicate that enforcement effort. Government-imposed price caps would distort price discovery, making it more difficult for courts and enforcers to measure monopoly overcharges and consumer harm. State regulation could also trigger a legal doctrine that limits private antitrust damages or constrains federal enforcement.
PPI’s report explains that state legislative proposals overlook the important role of the resale ticket market. Resale allows fans to access tickets that are unavailable in the primary market, recover their costs when plans change, and comparison shop across platforms. While resale ticket prices may rise for high-demand events, they can also fall below face value for lower-demand shows.
State proposals to cap resale prices or fees, the PPI report finds, would create more ticket shortages, increase price volatility, and push ticket buyers back to scammers in the shadow markets that prevailed before the advent of competitive online resale marketplaces. The net result of price cap regulation will steer consumers back to Ticketmaster’s vertically integrated platform, where it can collect monopoly fees on primary and resale ticket purchases.
At the same time, Moss emphasizes that many pending federal and state proposals would meaningfully improve consumer protection and reinforce competition. These include: requiring up-front, all-in pricing throughout the ticket search process; strengthening enforcement against “bots,” speculative tickets, and excessive ticket holdbacks; and protecting ticket transferability so consumers can freely resell their tickets.
“Antitrust enforcement and smart consumer protection should work hand in hand,” said Moss. “Lawmakers should focus on transparency and transferability, not on resale price and fee controls that risk weakening enforcement and depriving fans of competitive alternatives.”
Read and download the report here.
Founded in 1989, PPI is a catalyst for policy innovation and political reform based in Washington, D.C. Its mission is to create radically pragmatic ideas for moving America beyond ideological and partisan deadlock. Find an expert and learn more about PPI by visiting progressivepolicy.org. Follow us @ppi.
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Media Contact: Ian O’Keefe – iokeefe@ppionline.org
