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Justice Department to file antitrust suit against Live Nation

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Re: Justice Department to file antitrust suit against Live Nation

#151

Post by pixl97 »

ryandrake wrote: post #124

I'm as glad as anyone else to see an abusive company get some scrutiny, B U T . . . Everyone is complaining about Ticketmaster but they're still giving them their money, so how are they supposed to respond? They are not being financially incentivized to change their ways. This feels a lot like the video gamer who hates Video Game Company XYZ with the passion of a thousand suns, yet like clockwork buys their video gam…

I mean no...

There is no reason to behave like we exist in a low trust economy for any non-essential service when these 'non-essential' services are a massive portion of our total GDP.

Really, to follow your over libertarian line of thought it would be ok to say "Oreo's don't need to follow food safety laws because Oreo's aren't a necessity, you can buy bread and water". Instead we apply food safety laws to all food products so you don't play cancer russian roulette.

And the same should go for service transactions. I shouldn't have to find out that the one company that seems to own all venues is a monopolistic bastard that will fuck you over. Instead I should elect a representative government that punishes the living fuck out of companies that try to behave like that so the general consumer saves massive amounts of time and money thereby benefiting society.

Re: Justice Department to file antitrust suit against Live Nation

#152

Post by dghlsakjg »

to11mtm wrote: post #108
op00to wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100% chargebacks have changed in the last 2-3 years. I had a vendor send me the wrong part and refuse a refund. Even showing that they sent the wrong part despite ordering the correct part, my chargeback was denied.

I think a lot of banks have gotten weary of chargeback scams and taking the brunt of Amazon's binning practices. Frankly, I'd think it better if they just cut off those bad retailers from the system, which is where the failing is. Alas, monopolies in -that- sector as far as I know prevent a single bank from doing a whole lot, especially when it's a vendor that does so much volume that all the legitimate chargebacks w…

I'm not sure why. In many cases the merchant is charged a chargeback fee regardless of whether they are in the right or not. The bank gets paid either way.

Re: Justice Department to file antitrust suit against Live Nation

#153

Post by [deleted] »

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #57
harimau777 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you expand on this? It seems to me that a major difference between flight tickets and concert tickets is that when an airline overbooks they can switch you to a later flight. However, most concerts only perform once in a given city.

What is overbooking and why does it happen? From what I can tell, overbooking is entirely preventable and done to maximize profit. Just don't do that? Hotels operate in a similar fashion as well.

[deleted]

Re: Justice Department to file antitrust suit against Live Nation

#154

Post by oldandboring »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #138
voidwtf wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I understand correctly Ticketmaster is still the one creating this problem, they demand exclusivity in their contracts which often means the venue has no choice if they want to participate in a large enough market to continue operating. Similarly artists have trouble securing large venues if not participating in their scheme. This is the problem with most 'monopolies', they reach a certain critical mass where they…

> artists have trouble securing large venues Then perform smaller venues and ration tickets to your most-devoted fans. Unfortunately, if you do that, it's tough to become a billionaire. (Analogy: wineries. On the 4 x 4 of size and price point, you have wines positioned in each quadrant.) TicketMaster is, or more accurately its exclusivity requirements are, the root of the problem. But everyone around them--from the m…

> Then perform smaller venues and ration tickets to your most-devoted fans. Unfortunately, if you do that, it's tough to become a billionaire.

If you do that, it's tough to make any money at all. If you're, say, Dave Matthews Band and you have 50,000 people who want to come to each show, and you start saying you'll only play to 1,000 people at a time, the economics start going sideways. The size of the band has to shrink and/or the cost per ticket has to go way up. The secondhand/scalper market sends tickets sky high.

Ticketmaster/LiveNation allows big acts to fill big venues, which (despite how it may feel sometimes) actually makes the show available to more people at a lower price.

Re: Justice Department to file antitrust suit against Live Nation

#155

Post by oldandboring »

davidgh wrote: post #113
voidwtf wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I understand correctly Ticketmaster is still the one creating this problem, they demand exclusivity in their contracts which often means the venue has no choice if they want to participate in a large enough market to continue operating. Similarly artists have trouble securing large venues if not participating in their scheme. This is the problem with most 'monopolies', they reach a certain critical mass where they…

To be sure, Live Nation owns and / or operates many of the venues. They also provide management services to artists. So it’s not that TicketMaster demands exclusivity from the venue, they #are# the venue.

And in court they will probably argue that this is vertical integration that creates savings they pass along to the consumer. DOJ will likely argue they are pocketing it.

Re: Justice Department to file antitrust suit against Live Nation

#156

Post by exclusiv »

methodical wrote: post #67

My horror story of Ticketmaster; I recently bought standing-room-only tickets on short notice ( I reached out to support for assistance, and after several days of wasted time and run-around, they finally sent my issue to their engineering team saying they'd get back to me in 5 business days. Keep in mind I said I bought these tickets a week before the event, and they'd already wasted a few days giving me the run-arou…

Not a lawyer, but maybe a CLRA suit if you are in California. As I understand it - you may be able to get attorneys fees and punitive damages.

Re: Justice Department to file antitrust suit against Live Nation

#157

Post by anthonypasq »

Clent wrote: post #141
ryandrake wrote: post #124

I'm as glad as anyone else to see an abusive company get some scrutiny, B U T . . . Everyone is complaining about Ticketmaster but they're still giving them their money, so how are they supposed to respond? They are not being financially incentivized to change their ways. This feels a lot like the video gamer who hates Video Game Company XYZ with the passion of a thousand suns, yet like clockwork buys their video gam…

When did seeing a live event become a luxury? Live events have been the norm throughout history. The fact that it can now be classified as a luxury speaks to the need for drastic change.

people somehow feel like the they have right to see a Taylor Swift concert for $40 but if you suggested that SuperBowl tickets should be $40 everyone would look at you like youre crazy.

Seeing a live event is not a luxury. Seeing the most popular entertainer in the world in a giant stadium is a luxury.

Re: Justice Department to file antitrust suit against Live Nation

#158

Post by throwaway5959 »

methodical wrote: post #67

My horror story of Ticketmaster; I recently bought standing-room-only tickets on short notice ( I reached out to support for assistance, and after several days of wasted time and run-around, they finally sent my issue to their engineering team saying they'd get back to me in 5 business days. Keep in mind I said I bought these tickets a week before the event, and they'd already wasted a few days giving me the run-arou…

So you didn’t purchase ticket insurance, you got the tickets you paid for (which they can allow you to sell, at their discretion) and you filed a chargeback… why is that Ticketmaster’s problem? Like it sucks, to be sure, and Ticketmaster is awful, but I’m not sure why that chargeback would be considered legit.

Re: Justice Department to file antitrust suit against Live Nation

#159

Post by paxys »

WarOnPrivacy wrote: post #89
CPLX wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your first sentence here is correct. The second sentence is ridiculous. The Obama administration was pro-monopolist basically across the board for eight straight years. The record is pretty easy to understand.

> The Obama administration was pro-monopolist basically across the board for eight straight years. It might be more accurate to say that rubber-stamping mergers maxed-out under the Obama DoJ. Comcast - NBCUniversal (2011) AT&T - T-Mobile (2011) Express Scripts - Medco Health Solutions (2012) Google - Motorola Mobility (2012) Anheuser-Busch InBev - Grupo Modelo (2013) US Airways - American Airlines (2013) Oracle - Sun…

The policies were largely unchanged before and after. What was unique about this period was quantitative easing & lowering of interest rates to ~0. Companies were suddenly flush with cash and had nothing to do with it, because keeping it in the bank wasn't an option. So they went on a shopping spree.

Re: Justice Department to file antitrust suit against Live Nation

#160

Post by anthonypasq »

freedomben wrote: post #85
paxys wrote: post #77

While I 100% support this action, I feel like people are going to be disappointed to find that if/when the dust settles and Live Nation is reined in (big if), tickets for the Taylor Swift concert or the NBA finals aren't suddenly coming down to $50. With a growing population, people with more disposable income and more interest in such events in general the fundamental economy of live events is very different than wh…

Yep. I despise TM and think this needs to change, but the only thing it's going to fix (from the consumer's perspective, not the artists et al) is the abysmal and abusive customer service (that doesn't really exist), not the high prices. The prices are pretty much exactly what the market will bear, and that will be true no matter who the middleman is.

no they arent. the prices are significantly below market value which is why scalping exists. If Taylor Swift actually used market pricing then tickets would be thousands of dollars, but then people would whine that Taylor Swift is greedy, so instead they set some arbitrary "acceptable" ticket value and pawn all the blame on scalpers and Ticketmaster.
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