The following is testimony submitted by Diana L. Moss, on behalf of the Progressive Policy Institute, for the upcoming hearing to be convened by the California Assembly’s Privacy and Consumer Protection Committee regarding Senate Bill 785 (“SB 785”).
PPI has advocated for antitrust enforcement to play a leading role in promoting competition in the live events industry. Live Nation-Ticketmaster has dominated the markets that comprise the live events supply chain for more than 15 years. The company’s consistent and abusive exercise of market power has long stifled competition from independent venues and, most recently, in the secondary or resale ticketing market, which Ticketmaster has grown rapidly to dominate. Fans are the direct casualties of anticompetitive practices, which they pay for through sky-high ticket fees, barriers to accessing events, poor quality service and glitchy ticketing platforms, and breaches of ticket buyers’ data privacy and security.
PPI’s Vice President and Director of Competition Policy, Diana Moss, has written extensively on the need for a U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) monopolization case against Live Nation-Ticketmaster. Dr. Moss also analyzes federal and state legislative proposals to intervene in the resale ticket market. For the reasons explained below, some proposals have stumbled through federal and state legislatures. Many of them are supported by Live Nation-Ticketmaster, a clear indication that intervening in resale ticket markets would serve only to preserve and reinforce the company’s monopoly power.
The DOJ filed an antitrust case against Live Nation-Ticketmaster on May 23, 2024. The state of California, along with 29 other states, signed onto the DOJ’s complaint. Dr. Moss has explained that, in the likely event the DOJ prevails in its case, a breakup remedy is the only way to end the company’s monopolistic practices, promote competition, and protect fans and artists. On the other hand, some legislative proposals — despite their stated focus on protecting consumers — intervene in resale markets in ways that would exacerbate anticompetitive conduct by Live NationTicketmaster.
This outcome would limit competition from resale, which is the only source of competition in ticketing, to the detriment of fans and artists. Such legislative proposals, including some provisions in SB 785, would be at odds with the DOJ antitrust case that seeks to reintroduce competition in live events. For this reason, PPI urges this Committee and legislators in other states and at the federal level to “table” legislation directed at the resale market during the pendency and outcome of the DOJ litigation.
Watch the July 2nd hearing here.
