Live Nation Linking To Ticket Brokers
At the time of this writing (late 2009) Live Nation’s website is linking to tickets held by brokers. This isn’t a move to bolster its online marketing. The world’s largest promoter of concerts says it’s a move to better serve their customers.
\”LiveNation.com shows you tickets that brokers, re-sellers, and fans are offering. We know this isn’t for everyone as many fans don’t like to buy from secondary markets,\” reads the Live Nation Web site. \”We understand, but we want to offer you as many options as we can in one place. Our goal is to get you to the show and deliver the concert experience that’s right for you.\”
This maneuver contradicts previous statements made by Live Nation deriding ticket resellers. It also defies some of their business practices, such as paperless ticketing and dynamic pricing, purported to eliminate the secondary ticket market.
Some experts believe that Live Nation’s change of heart is part of a concession package made with the U.S. Department of Justice. Live Nation’s concessions are an attempt to get the DOJ to approve their proposed merger with Ticketmaster.
Live Nation and Ticketmaster have been trying to curry favor with the DOJ since they announced their plans of $2.52 billion merger in February. If approved, the merger would create the largest ticketing and concert promoting company in the world.
Recently, several national consumer protection groups reiterated their opposition to the planned merger. The groups calling on the government to block the Ticketmaster-Live Nation union are the National Association of Ticket Brokers, the National Consumers League (NCL), the American Antitrust Institute, the Consumer Action, and Knowledge Ecology International.
\”Spinning off a small part of Ticketmaster is no answer,\” said NCL Executive Director Sally Greenberg. \”Suggestions that Comcast – a company that is a master of unnecessary and exorbitant charges – entering into the merger negotiations will fix a bad deal are laughable and do nothing to ease the sting of a deal that is anti-competitive and anti-consumer on its face.\”
Greenberg is referring to industry reports that have Comcast buying assets from Ticketmaster and/or Live Nation to ease antitrust concerns.
A couple of options opened to Comcast include buying Live Nation’s ticketing operation or buying Paciolan, a ticketing subsidiary owned by Ticketmaster.
Live Nation is no stranger to accusations of monopolization. As the Feds get closer to announcing a decision on the merger, we’re reminded of a pending 2006 lawsuit against Live Nation and their suspected antitrust activities.
The suit alleges that Live Nation, and its then parent company Clear Channel, used anti-competitive tactics to keep ticket prices artificially high. One such tactic involved Clear Channel only playing acts using their concert promotion services on their radio stations.
The case is on hold until the presiding judge rules on an unrelated class action lawsuit involving Walmart. It may be a year before the Live Nation case resumes.
Lead counsel for the class action suit believes the case won’t impact the DOJ’s decision on the merger.
Copyright 2009 AuthorityTickets.com
About The Author:
Ryan Hogan writes for http://www.AuthorityTickets.com/, a secondary ticket industry news and information blog and event tickets website.
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