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US Justice Department to seek breakup of Live Nation-Ticketmaster

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Re: US Justice Department to seek breakup of Live Nation-Ticketmaster

#61

Post by paulddraper »

EasyMark wrote: post #52
paulddraper wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But monopolies are not illegal. Violating antitrust law is illegal. --- You don't violate federal law just by being the only company to sell canine banana hammocks.

Are you arguing that they aren't hurting consumers? Just look at ticket prices over the years as more and more competition was eliminated, as well as the tactics they use to control artists. You aren't going to have much luck I suspect.

No.

I am pointing out that being a monopoly (i.e. the only business choosing to offer a product/service) is not illegal.

Engaging in anticompetive behavior is illegal. And the Justice Dept has accused Ticketmaster of doing that.

Re: US Justice Department to seek breakup of Live Nation-Ticketmaster

#62

Post by ldoughty »

nickff wrote: post #28
cbsmith wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm theory, prosecutions are a civil service function, not a political function. Changes in administration might change the leadership and what areas are prioritized, but once you have a case, it really shouldn't matter who is in office. In theory.

What theory is this from, some sort of administrative state theory? This has never been the case in any executive branch that I'm aware of.

"I want you to make sure this case goes nowhere, can you do that?"

"No!"

Fires leadership

"I want you to make sure this case goes nowhere, can you do that?"

"You got it!"

Hires

There certainly is some of this every administrative change over.

Re: US Justice Department to seek breakup of Live Nation-Ticketmaster

#64

Post by paulddraper »

fngjdflmdflg wrote: post #50
paulddraper wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But monopolies are not illegal. Violating antitrust law is illegal. --- You don't violate federal law just by being the only company to sell canine banana hammocks.

I agree that is what is the law is and even that that is what the law should be. It is also important to note however that the actual title of the Sherman Antitrust Act is "An Act to protect trade and commerce against unlawful restraints and monopolies ." So it isn't fair to say that anti-competitive practices and monopolies are completely orthogonal (although strictly speaking they are) because monopolies are a perf…

Your quote itself presents the question of lawful monopoly vs unlawful monopoly.

Re: US Justice Department to seek breakup of Live Nation-Ticketmaster

#66

Post by doctorpangloss »

EasyMark wrote: post #51

The FTC and DoJ have been hitting it out of the park recently, unfortunately, there are a lot of judges out there that think corps should be able to do anything they want.

Unfortunately, anti-trust is all case law.

The Sherman Antitrust Act is one paragraph long.

9 constitutional amendments are only one sentence long, not even a paragraph!

It's all case law.

But judges care way more about constitutional amendments than Sherman Antitrust Act. Most have limited intellectual interest in the problems it tackles.

And really, who cares about the price of concert tickets, online ads and in-app purchase fees? These guys went to law school not business school.

They. Just. Don't. Care.

Could the DoJ and FTC make them care as much about antitrust as like, at least 2 amendments? Yes.

I have no idea how the DoJ and FTC have failed to drum up excitement about this stuff. Nobody is going to rule against the status quo without passionate feelings about it.

Re: US Justice Department to seek breakup of Live Nation-Ticketmaster

#67

Post by anigbrowl »

janalsncm wrote: post #49
ceejayoz wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Treasury Direct is for stuff like savings bonds. If you want to donate , it's https://www.fiscal.treasury.gov/public/gifts-to-government.h... , but they're not directed donations.

It would be pretty interesting if certain departments in the government could get direct payments. For example if the last $100 on your taxes you could choose any department to allocate to.

I am a huge fan of hypothecation, and the fact that no politician wants to even consider it says a lot about the world we live in.

Re: US Justice Department to seek breakup of Live Nation-Ticketmaster

#68

Post by laidoffamazon »

roughly wrote: post #46
akira2501 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Administration is bound by the Due Care clause, but that's a huge window, so you can just intentionally create a dysfunctional and incompetent group of people and give them the responsibility for enforcing this nations laws. This Administration, although it would hate to actually admit it out loud, actually put someone competent in charge of the agency with this enforcement responsibility and then.. to everyone's…

It’s been noted by a few folks that anything the administration says out loud immediately becomes gristle for the Fox News-o-verse and therefore something for Congress to yell loudly at and try to block. The Biden administration has consequently become very good at being very quiet about the things it’s doing well, with the distinct drawback in an election year that everyone seems to be quite surprised when they disc…

The Biden administration is a textbook example of how to not control any narratives whatsoever and never be able to get any credit. They lost the narrative after Kabul and then just never got it back, despite being one of the most legislatively successful and executively impactful administrations in the last 50 years. Case in point - recent poll that had 50% of voters that listed "climate" as their top priority didn't think this administration has done anything on climate change.

Re: US Justice Department to seek breakup of Live Nation-Ticketmaster

#69

Post by kelseyfrog »

IamLoading wrote: post #26

Jeez, How did Govt take this long to break up Live Nation. How?

It's so freaking infuriating.

I worked in the ticketing industry in 2007-2010. I remember when the CEO of our small org told us that he talked to the FTC as an industry expert when they were approving the deal. He said he didn't think it would harm competition.

Everyone else, including myself, could see where this was going. I don't know how folks could be that bone-headed even back then.

Re: US Justice Department to seek breakup of Live Nation-Ticketmaster

#70

Post by laidoffamazon »

klyrs wrote: post #54
EasyMark wrote: post #51

The FTC and DoJ have been hitting it out of the park recently, unfortunately, there are a lot of judges out there that think corps should be able to do anything they want.

It's an election year, don't hold your breath.

Election year is 25% of a single administration's term, why should events be ignored 25% of the time?
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