Live data from Hacker News

US Justice Department to seek breakup of Live Nation-Ticketmaster

bloomberg.com

231–240 of 319 posts

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

#231

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.

Corporate America is certainly not a fan of FTC chair Lina Khan. She's been subjected to a barrage of attacks from places like the Wall Street journal so she must be doing something right. Jon Stewart revealed when interviewing her, that Apple executives had asked him not to have her on his podcast.

https://youtu.be/CnC9JV5YtBY?feature=shared

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

#232

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-ap…

> The Sherman Antitrust Act is one paragraph long

The original Sherman Act has 7 sections (one additional was later added) one of which has two subsections, none of which have multiple paragraphs, for a total of 8 paragraphs.

More to the point, US antitrust law isn't just the Sherman Act and case law, because:

1. There are two other main antitrust-related statutes, the Clayton Act and the Federal Trade Commission Act, and

2. The FTC Act as well as its direct mandates also creates regulatory authority for the FTC,

3. In addition to federal antitrust law in the US, there is also state antitrust law.

> But judges care way more about constitutional amendments than Sherman Antitrust Act.

I'm not sure what the bases for your intuition about how much judges care about those things are; there is certainly a sense in which Constitutional provisions definitionally have priority over statute and administrative law, but its hardly as if antitrust law isn't an area that has gotten extremely detailed judicial attention.

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

#233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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-ap…

That is by design, no? Sherman act does not address a lot of modern anti-trust, as you mentioned. We need new legislation. Judges can just as easily find pet causes that don’t align with your interests, I don’t think that’s the mechanism you or I want our country to rely on.

All three of the main US federal antitrust laws (Sherman Act, Clayton Act, and FTC Act) have neen amended since originally adopted, and the FTC act also creates regulatory authority which the FTC has regularly exercised. Even ignoring case law evolution, US antitrust law hasn't been static.

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

#234

If Live Nation-Ticketmaster is not a monopoly then there is no such thing as a monopoly.

Merely being a monopoly is not sufficient to warrant antitrust action.

I certainly don’t want Ticketmaster to be a monopoly. Why should consumers be forced to buy tickets from them?

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

#235

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.

any examples for the uninitiated?

Most stuff not easy to describe in a few blurbs, imho.

Here’s an article (gift link, so no paywall) that describes the whole situation:

https://wapo.st/4dNEf0z

Good interview with Jon Stewart:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaDTiWaYfcM

Simple examples are:

- Kroger and Albertson’s (grocery stores)

- Illumina and Grail (cancer detection)

- Amazon for dark patterns regarding signing up for prime, and for privacy violations with Alexa and Ring

- Lost challenge to Microsoft and Activision-Blizzard (good to look into, not sure about the specific case)

- FTC released a framework for anti-trust that should be a regulatory win.

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

#236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m confused about why you’re so opposed to the biggest climate legislation package ever signed into law.

Inflation.

I think your perspective might be...tainted. I kid, I kid. But typically it's spelled "perineum" just fyi. I'd be interested in seeing a non-crank source for your assertion. Everything I've read suggests that it'll likely be inflation-neutral or slightly reduce inflation over the next 10 years. Even if spending on it gets up to a trillion dollars over a ten year span, you're still talking about one tenth of what gets spent on defense contractors and the military every year.

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

#237
post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In this case, because I don't expect Biden to win another term and I expect the prosecution of this case to take longer than a year. The last several administrations have opened their term by tearing down everything that the prior administration had done. To be specific: I'm not confident the prosecutor behind this will have a job at the end of the year.

I genuinely think that if Biden does not win another term there are far larger problems for the American project than Ticketmaster, including democracy existing as we know it today.

>including democracy existing as we know it today.

Weren't there similar predictions back in 2016? How is it different this time? Or to back up a bit, what exactly does "democracy existing as we know it today" mean? It could mean anything between "US becomes North Korea" and "the whitehouse revoked the press credentials of someone who said something mean about trump".

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

#238
post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

In this case, because I don't expect Biden to win another term and I expect the prosecution of this case to take longer than a year. The last several administrations have opened their term by tearing down everything that the prior administration had done. To be specific: I'm not confident the prosecutor behind this will have a job at the end of the year.

I'm pretty sure that if the incumbent conservative President loses to the radical reactionaries, that incoming administration will be tearing down much more than merely the prior administration - more like two hundred years of the painstaking progress we now take for granted.

(Just for context here, lest the postmodern fence-sitters write me off as some rabid partisan - I'm an unaligned libertarian who had never voted for a major candidate in a national election before 2020)

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

#239
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

How dare politicians implement popular policies to appeal to voters!

Biden held significant sway in the country as VP from 2009-2016 and now again from 2021-2024. The fact that he chose to do the bare minimum on the last possible year 12 years into the job with less of a majority than he’s had in the past right as his election polls are starting to tank certainly seems telling.

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

#240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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've always wondered what government funding would look like if taxpayers could allocate their tax dollars at their own discretion. I don't think it would be all that functional in practice, but the idea of it seems interesting.

The amount of money going towards advertisement for specific government bodies would explode. Maybe good for civics education, probably not good for the government's budget.
Post reply on HN