Live Nation Entertainment – which already outspent other businesses in the live entertainment realm by an estimated 5-to-1 margin – doubled its lobbying efforts in a controversy-filled 2023 according to a report in The Hill. The California-based giant spent $2.4 million on lobbying efforts at the federal level, compared to $1.1 million in 2022.
In recent months, Live Nation Entertainment has hired multiple new lobbying firms in its efforts to sway public policy at the federal level. The company has spent at least $1 million at the federal level in each year since 2020, after averaging less than half of that per year before that point. Firms hired have included one run by the former general counsel of the Senate antitrust committee Seth Bloom and another involving former U.S. Sen Mark Pryor (D-AR).
“It’s no secret we’ve stepped up our advocacy efforts this past year,” Live Nation’s antitrust czar Dan Wall told The Hill. “More than ever, Congress is focused on ticketing policies, and there is an unprecedented amount of lobbying going on by ticket resellers and competitors attempting to use legislation to protect ticket scalping and deceptive sales practices to advance their own competitive interests.”
Live Nation began 2023 in the crosshairs of lawmakers across the country, following the botched sales process for the first U.S. leg of Taylor Swift’s blockbuster Eras Tour. Fan complaints continued throughout the year, with massive issues experienced during multiple high-profile tour sales, and significant pushback over massive price-surging across the industry, all while the company enjoyed record-smashing profits.
Many critics, including several lawmakers, have alleged that Live Nation and Ticketmaster operate as a monopoly within the live entertainment business, with a lack of competition driving many of the issues consumers are experiencing.
“Live Nation is so powerful that it doesn’t even need to exert pressure, it doesn’t need to threaten, everyone just falls in line”, said Sen. Amy Klobuchar during an event discussing the potential for the company to be broken up run by the American Economic Liberties Project earlier this week. Klobuchar is co-sponsor of multiple bills attempting to bring new regulations to ticketing, as well as an outspoken proponent of the need for the Department of Justice to take action against the giant.
As Wall’s quote from The Hill indicates, Live Nation’s stance is that ticket resale is the driving force behind all of the consumer issues in ticketing, and it is spending major money to get that point across to federal legislators as well as state lawmakers across the U.S.
