[ad_1]
A US Senate panel has issued a subpoena to Live Nation and Ticketmaster for info relating to ticket pricing and costs. The subpoena comes after months of investigation into the corporate’s practices within the wake of controversies surrounding ticket gross sales for Taylor Swift and Bruce Springsteen live performance excursions.
The Senate Everlasting Subcommittee on Investigations, chaired by Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, is searching for data associated to Reside Nation and its ticketing division Ticketmaster’s “failure to fight artificially inflated demand fueled by bots in a number of, high-profile incidents, which resulted in shoppers being charged exorbitant ticket costs.”
Blumenthal, in a statement on X (previously Twitter) on Tuesday (November 21), mentioned: “Reside Nation has egregiously stonewalled my Subcommittee’s inquiry into its abusive shopper practices — making the subpoena crucial.”
“This subpoena calls for that the corporate promptly adjust to our request for paperwork important to know its enterprise practices.
The subcommittee can be searching for data associated to the corporate’s pricing and costs, resale practices, and relationship with artists and venues, CNBC reported, citing a letter to Reside Nation CEO Michael Rapino.
“the American public deserves to understand how Ticketmaster’s unfair practices could also be enabled by its misuse of monopoly energy.”
Richard Blumenthal, US Senator
“American shoppers deserve truthful ticket costs, with out hidden charges or predatory fees. And the American public deserves to understand how Ticketmaster’s unfair practices could also be enabled by its misuse of monopoly energy,” Blumenthal said on X.
In response, a Reside Nation spokesperson spokesperson informed the information outlet: “Reside Nation has voluntarily labored with the Subcommittee from the beginning, offering in depth info and holding a number of conferences with employees.”
“With a view to present extra info requested about artist and consumer compensation and different equally delicate issues, we’ve requested for traditional confidentiality measures,” the corporate spokesperson mentioned.
“To this point the Subcommittee has refused to offer such assurances, but when and when these protections are in place we’ll present extra info on these points.”
“With a view to present extra info requested about artist and consumer compensation and different equally delicate issues, we’ve requested for traditional confidentiality measures. To this point the Subcommittee has refused to offer such assurances.”
Reside Nation
The subpoena is the most recent improvement within the Senate’s scrutiny of Reside Nation and Ticketmaster, which comes within the wake of a lot of controversies over ticketing and tickets costs. Many Bruce Springsteen followers had been outraged final yr when some tickets for his 2023 tour went for as much as USD $5,000.
Some Taylor Swift followers criticized Ticketmaster after its ticketing system crashed when tickets went on sale for the pop artist’s Eras tour in November, 2022.
The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing in regards to the two firms in January, exploring whether or not the merger of Reside Nation and Ticketmaster harmed shoppers by stifling competitors.
Reside Nation’s Rapino has denied that Ticketmaster is a monopoly, arguing that if it had been, it might have bigger revenue margins.
“You wouldn’t discover a monopoly in historical past that has a ten%, 11% margin,” Rapino said on an episode of the Bob Lefsetz podcast earlier this yr. “Monopoly means you’ve sufficient pricing energy to have a really excessive margin return. So… [this] is a low-margin enterprise on the core.”
The subpoena is a significant improvement for shoppers who’ve lengthy complained about excessive ticket costs and costs. Additionally it is an indication that the Senate is taking significantly the declare that Reside Nation and Ticketmaster wield monopoly energy.
Again in Could, a Home invoice known as the ‘Boss and Swift Act’ was proposed within the US Congress to convey transparency and regulation to what its authors, US Congressmen Invoice Pascrell, Jr. and Frank Pallone, Jr., describe because the “badly corrupted” reside occasions ticket market.
Music Enterprise Worldwide
[ad_2]
