President Trump is trying to get ticket prices under control. Live Nation-Ticketmaster wants to get its claws deeper into your wallet.
That’s the battle happening right now in Washington, and if you care about competition, consumer choice, or just being able to see a concert without taking out a loan, it’s time to pay attention.
Back in March, President Trump signed an executive order directing his agencies to investigate what’s really driving sky-high ticket prices. It was classic Trump — protecting the little guy from shady middlemen and fraudulent activity.
He wants his DOJ, FTC, and Treasury Department to study the prevalence of ticket bots, shady online scams, and other rigged tricks that make it impossible for regular Americans to buy concert and sports tickets at a fair price.
In response, the DOJ and FTC opened a comment period, allowing industry stakeholders and members of the public to provide their two cents.
But now, this month — at the tail end of that fact-finding process — one of the worst offenders in the entire live entertainment industry daringly tried to deflect from its sins by twisting Trump’s initiative into a weapon to wipe out its competition.
That offender is Live Nation, which owns Ticketmaster. Its plan? A government-imposed cap on how much fans can resell tickets. It sounds good until you realize who really wins.
Spoiler alert: It’s not consumers. It’s Live Nation, the monopoly worth over $34 billion, and which already controls at least 80% of the American ticketing market. The same company is being sued by the DOJ and 40 states for punishing venues and promoters who work with its rivals.
Live Nation is allegedly removing artists, cutting promotional support, and redirecting shows away from venues for the “crime” of working with its competitors. Now, this serial abuser of America’s pro-competition laws thinks it can pose as a consumer champion and an advocate for greater affordability in the ticket marketplace? Give us a break.
The company’s price cap wouldn’t hurt scalpers or scammers. It would only hurt fans who buy from regulated resale sites. Maybe they didn’t have four hours in the middle of a workday to wait on Ticketmaster’s site to get a ticket. Maybe they don’t have a fancy credit card to get into their presale.
The price cap won’t even lower prices. It will just make those tickets go to the black market.
Look at what happened to France, which bans re-selling tickets above face value, in the lead-up to the Paris Olympics, with officials uncovering hundreds of fake ticket sites. The outcome was predictable: prices didn’t drop for most fans, but their trustworthy resale options disappeared, making it easier for scammers to step in.
It’s the same playbook Big Tech used with Section 230 — write the rules so only the giants can survive. Now Live Nation appears intent on using the same trick to push out SeatGeek, StubHub, and Vivid Seats with the seeming goal of jacking up its 80% market share to 100%.
It’s the first lesson in Swamp Behavior 101. Wrap your cartel power in a consumer-friendly headline, then get your friends in Washington to do your dirty work. But if you believe in America First economics, you should see this for what it is — another swamp tactic to rig the market.
Let’s get real — would a company which has, historically speaking, moved mountains to crush consumer choice really be lobbying to protect consumers’ interests? Or would it be spending that money to help itself?
President Trump didn’t take office to help billion-dollar monopolies get even richer. He stepped in to protect hardworking Americans from exactly this kind of insider scheme.
The solution to high ticket prices isn’t to hand even more power to Live Nation. The solution is more competition and transparency while getting bots and scammers out of the system. That’s what Trump’s order was about, and that’s what his administration will stay focused on, no matter how much this predatory monopoly, which most Americans want to see broken up, moans.
John M. Pierce, a trial attorney and Managing Partner of John Pierce Law, is the founder of the National Constitutional Law Union (NCLUE), where he defends Americans against government overreach and Big Tech tyranny. He has represented high-profile clients including Tulsi Gabbard, Rudy Giuliani, Kyle Rittenhouse, and over 20 January 6 defendants.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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