Consumer Watchdog Launches “Ticketmaster Exposed” Website

A non-partisan consumer group has launched a new website, which they say highlights the negative impacts that the Live Nation-Ticketmaster monopoly has on the ticket-buying public. Ticketmaster Exposed is part of a wider campaign organized by Consumer Action for a Strong Economy (CASE), a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting free-market principles.

The organization behind it says the campaign is designed to provide the public and policymakers in the U.S. with factual information regarding the entertainment giant and how its allegedly anticompetitive behavior harms venues, artists, and fans.

“Fans want to see their favorite team or artist at a reasonable price, but the Live Nation-Ticketmaster monopoly is making that virtually impossible,” said Gerard Scimeca, chairman of CASE. “They run the venues, artists, and tickets – and fans pay the price. For more than a decade, the federal government has told them to knock it off – they’ve refused. It’s past time for fans, artists, and lawmakers to say enough is enough: End this monopoly once and for all.”

Ticketmaster Exposed offers website visitors news and statistics documenting what they refer to as Live Nation Entertainment and Ticketmaster’s “extraordinary influence over every segment of the live events industry.” It cites statistics including:

• The estimated 80% control that Ticketmaster has over the primary ticketing market in the U.S.
• TM’s rapidly growing share of the secondary ticket market, supercharged by the forced shift to mobile-locked ticketing systems like SafeTix
• Live Nation’s ownership or control of more than 260 venues including more than 60% of the Top 100 amphitheaters in the country
• Live Nation’s management of a stable of nearly 400 high profile artists through its management wing

That dominance, coupled with a long history of allegations that company representatives rely on threats and conditioning of deals to keep competition locked out, spell trouble for American consumers, according to CASE.

“With Live Nation using threats to prop up its dominance, there’s no free market,” Scimeca continued. “By shining a light on the Live Nation-Ticketmaster monopoly we hope to establish a path forward for a more competitive market that helps fans enjoy the live shows and events they want.”

In addition to sharing the known statistics detailing LNE and Ticketmaster’s market power, CASE also promises to collect and feature the stories from fans and consumers who have seen their experiences with live events tarnished by the “stranglehold of the Live Nation-Ticketmaster monopoly.”

CASE is far from the first consumer-oriented group to take on Live Nation or Ticketmaster. Its efforts cover similar territory to the Break up Ticketmaster coalition, which includes groups like the National Consumers League, American Economic Liberties Project, Consumer Federation of America, Future of Music Coalition, and others.

There has also been extraordinary pressure from lawmakers and federal regulators to address systemic issues that consumers are facing in ticketing, such as surged ticket pricing and hidden fees. President Biden has pushed for transparent ticket pricing and legislation has been introduced by members of both parties, but Live Nation Entertainment’s enormous lobbying war chest has thus far been able to hobble any serious efforts to introduce legislation that it doesn’t want to see come to pass. As pointed out in Ticketmaster Exposed, the corporate giant is also facing a lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice and the Attorneys General from 39 states and the District of Columbia for monopolization and violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act.

CASE as an organization stands for the creation of free-market solutions over government regulation, according to its website. So it is unclear what specific resolution it hopes to advocate for in terms of a path away from the highly concentrated current market conditions that exist. One of the core issues that the organization details on its website are property rights, which could indicate their belief that tickets are property that is owned by a consumer, which directly challenges much of the Ticketmaster business model.

Learn more at TicketmasterExposed.org.