{"id":512574,"date":"2022-11-19T18:01:51","date_gmt":"2022-11-19T15:01:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/how-a-taylor-swift-tour-thrust-antitrust-concerns-into-the-spotlight\/"},"modified":"2022-11-19T18:01:51","modified_gmt":"2022-11-19T15:01:51","slug":"how-a-taylor-swift-tour-thrust-antitrust-concerns-into-the-spotlight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/how-a-taylor-swift-tour-thrust-antitrust-concerns-into-the-spotlight\/","title":{"rendered":"#How a Taylor Swift tour thrust antitrust concerns into the spotlight"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_84 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a24d4e863e5a\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a24d4e863e5a\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/how-a-taylor-swift-tour-thrust-antitrust-concerns-into-the-spotlight\/#How_a_Taylor_Swift_tour_thrust_antitrust_concerns_into_the_spotlight\" >How a Taylor Swift tour thrust antitrust concerns into the spotlight<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h1><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"How_a_Taylor_Swift_tour_thrust_antitrust_concerns_into_the_spotlight\"><\/span>How a Taylor Swift tour thrust antitrust concerns into the spotlight<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/11\/swifttaylor_111222ap_swift-antitrust.jpg?w=900\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Taylor Swift fans have bad blood with Ticketmaster after the platform canceled the <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/general\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"3\" title=\"General\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">general<\/a> sale for the pop star\u2019s upcoming tour following a chaotic presale this week,\u00a0bringing new light to an issue that\u00a0supporters of antitrust reform\u00a0already knew\u00a0all too well.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Critics have been warning against the company\u2019s dominance since merging with Live Nation in 2010, and the latest fiasco with Swift\u2019s upcoming tour,\u00a0which sparked outrage among\u00a0her massive fan base, gave ammunition to lawmakers trying to revamp antitrust laws to pile on the pressure.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr1_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>The building momentum from Swift\u2019s fans comes as the Biden administration has pledged to take a tough stance on competition.\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/11\/18\/technology\/live-nation-ticketmaster-investigation-taylor-swift.html?smid=tw-nytimes&amp;smtyp=cur\">The New York Times reported<\/a>\u00a0Friday that Ticketmaster is facing a Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation over whether it has abused its market power.<\/p>\n<p>The probe reportedly predates the sale of Swift\u2019s \u201cThe Eras\u201d tour, but the high-profile nature of the tour thrust the issue into the spotlight.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe enormous interest in this performer and in this episode, concerning the availability of tickets to see her perform, is a big example of what we see so often in American public life \u2014 that policy change, action, often is catalyzed by a single event,\u201d said William Kovacic, a former Federal Trade Commission (FTC) chairman and a George Washington University law professor.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are all sorts of issues and matters that don\u2019t im<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">media<\/a>tely filter down to the country on a broad scale, but this does. And suddenly you have an uproar and legislators listen to that. Government agency officials listen to that,\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In addition to the reported DOJ probe and\u00a0pressure\u00a0from Congress, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti (R), said Wednesday that he would launch an investigation into Ticketmaster after complaints that the ticket sale process for Swift\u2019s tour \u201cdid not go smoothly.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Ticketmaster said issues arose due to unprecedented demand for tickets for Swift\u2019s tour, her first in five years, which follows the release of four new studio albums and two re-recordings of her earlier works.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr2_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>More than 2 million tickets were sold for the tour in the first presale day\u00a0on Tuesday, breaking Ticketmaster\u2019s record for the most sold in one day, Tickemaster said in an announcement.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>On\u00a0that day,\u00a0the website crashed. Ticketmaster said it had sent codes to 1.5 million fans to participate in the presale, directing 2 million others to a waitlist. The company said it\u00a0decided on\u00a0the amount\u00a0of people in each group\u00a0based on its historic data on fans participating and buying tickets.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Despite\u00a0the company\u00a0using a system aimed at organizing the amount of customers buying tickets in the presale, fans lamented online Tuesday that the website kept crashing and wait times to exit the \u201cqueue\u201d and have a turn to buy tickets were hours long for those who were let in.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr3_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>On Thursday, Ticketmaster said it would cancel the general sale slated for Friday \u201cdue to extraordinarily high demands on ticketing systems and insufficient remaining ticket inventory to meet that demand.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Although Ticketmaster said the issues were due to the high demand,\u00a0however,\u00a0advocates for antitrust reform say that\u00a0the company\u00a0is the problem.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause they have very little competition, [Ticketmaster] doesn\u2019t feel pressured to invest in their product at all,\u201d said Krista Brown, a senior policy analyst at the anti-monopoly nonprofit American Economic Liberties Project.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr4_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>That purported lack of competition leads to website crashes and higher prices and fees for customers, Brown said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey really are not afraid of losing the fan base, because the fan base doesn\u2019t have somewhere else to turn,\u201d Brown added.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Swift joined the chorus of pushback herself, posting an Instagram story Friday saying it\u2019s difficult for her to \u201ctrust an outside entity\u201d with her relationships with fans and \u201cexcruciating\u201d to \u201cjust watch mistakes h<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>en with no recourse.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m not going to make excuses for anyone because we asked them, multiple times, if they could handle this kind of demand and we were assured they could,\u201d Swift said, adding that it \u201cpisses [her] off\u201d that even the 2.4 million people who got tickets \u201cfeel like they went through several bear attacks to get them.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Ticketmaster <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.livenationentertainment.com\/2022\/11\/a-statement-from-live-nation-entertainment-2\/\">issued a statement Saturday<\/a> defending its behavior, without specifically mentioning the Swift tickets or the reported DOJ investigation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs we have stated many times in the past, Live Nation takes its responsibilities under the antitrust laws seriously and does not engage in behaviors that could justify antitrust litigation, let alone orders that would require it to alter fundamental business practices,\u201d the company said in a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>This is not the first time users have reported issues with Ticketmaster. Brown said \u201cmost people have a Ticketmaster horror story,\u201d either over technical issues of tickets \u201cdisappearing\u201d when in the checkout cart, or prices jumping due to \u201cdynamic pricing\u201d or \u201cunapparent fees\u201d attached to tickets at the end\u00a0of the purchasing process.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In 2019, the DOJ found that Ticketmaster had violated provisions in the consent decree crafted at the time of the approved merger. The department entered into a new agreement with the company, extending the decree to 2025 and adjusting some of the agreement\u2019s language.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The DOJ is now probing whether the company is complying with the new agreement as part of\u00a0its\u00a0inquiry, the Times reported.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr5_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s unquestionable that the Ticketmaster-LiveNation merger created a monopoly, and I applaud the [Jonathan] Kanter-led Antitrust Division at the Department of Justice for their investigation,\u201d Sacha Haworth, executive director of the Omidyar-funded Tech Oversight Project, said in a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Lawmakers that have been critical of the consolidation of power among a few companies used the chaotic sale for Swift\u2019s tour to elevate their concerns.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.)\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AOC\/status\/1592587226801934336\">tweeted a \u201cdaily reminder\u201d<\/a>\u00a0on Tuesday that \u201cTicketmaster is a monopoly, it\u2019s merger with LiveNation should never have been approved, and they need to be reigned in.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBreak them up,\u201d she added.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr6_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), on Wednesday\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SenBlumenthal\/status\/1593691730544558090\">shared a statement on Twitter<\/a>\u00a0that he made back in 2009 while serving as Connecticut attorney general, about investigating Ticketmaster. On Friday, he tweeted that \u201cit\u2019s time for DOJ to hold this bully accountable\u201d and to either enforce the terms of the merger agreement to protect consumers or \u201cbreak up this malign monopoly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), the chairwoman of the Senate Judiciary antitrust subcommittee,\u00a0sent a letter\u00a0to Michael Rapino, the company\u2019s president and CEO, on Wednesday pressing him over concerns of anticompetitive behavior.<\/p>\n<p>Klobuchar has been pushing for antitrust reform, mainly for a vote on a duo of bills aimed at reining in the power of tech giants. The proposals have advanced out of the Judiciary Committee with bipartisan support, but they\u00a0are not out of the woods yet,\u00a0with no floor vote date confirmed.<\/p>\n<p>More broadly, Klobuchar and other proponents of reforming antitrust laws argue that the DOJ and FTC do not have the resources they need to challenge behemoth companies amassing dominance in their sectors.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr7_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>The swell of pushback from Swift\u2019s fans, though, could help ramp up pressure, Brown said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt has kind of been an antitrust crash course for all the Taylor Swift Fans, which obviously there are many,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPublic pressure actually matters, and that\u2019s something that often times gets overlooked.\u201d\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News<\/a> articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/news\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/policy\/technology\/3742563-how-a-taylor-swift-tour-thrust-antitrust-concerns-into-the-spotlight\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How a Taylor Swift tour thrust antitrust concerns into the spotlight Taylor Swift fans have bad blood with Ticketmaster after the platform canceled the general sale for the pop star\u2019s upcoming tour following a chaotic presale this week,\u00a0bringing new light to an issue that\u00a0supporters of antitrust reform\u00a0already knew\u00a0all too well.\u00a0 Critics have been warning against&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":512575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thehill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/11\/swifttaylor_111222ap_swift-antitrust.jpg?w=1280","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[102991,30889,71391,134562,134661,80445,124783,134614,134354,134345,70671,4965,88214],"class_list":["post-512574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-amy-klobuchar","tag-biden","tag-department-of-justice","tag-doj","tag-energy-environment","tag-healthcare","tag-international","tag-judiciary","tag-nexstar-media-wire-news","tag-state-watch","tag-taylor-swift","tag-technology","tag-ticketmaster"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=512574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/512575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=512574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=512574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=512574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}