Jury finds that Ticketmaster and Live Nation had an anticompetitive monopoly over big concert venues

And now for the penalties phase. None of this matters if they aren't broken up.

Finally. This took too long. Remember how Live Nation’s Top Executives sent each other's messages about robbing the fans blind.

Yeah no f****** shit. Wake me up when I don’t get hit with $37.95 in bullshit fees

So it only took 30 years to figure this out?

> The proceedings also aired a Live Nation executive’s internal messages declaring some prices “outrageous,” calling customers “so stupid” and boasting that the company “robbing them blind, baby.” This is cartoon levels of villainy.

Don't worry folks, they'll get a fine that they won't pay, and you'll get charged more for "regulatory fees" now

And only 32 years after Peal Jam testified before congress, that touring without Ticketmaster is impossible. While you can find a smaller venues to host a concert, popular bands would draw way more people than what the venue could hold. You sell 3,000 tickets, but 10,000-20,000 people show up. Police will shut that down because they dont have enough officers to handle large crowds like that.

In other news the sun is bright, water is wet and jeffery epstein didnt kill himself

You mean a Trust? They formed an old school Trust?

Don't get all excited. The reality is that nothing will change as a result of this ruling.

Im sure instead of doing the right thing and breaking up the monopoly, our politicians will find a way to extort payola money from them in exchange for them being able to maintain the monopoly.

Watch out for the tiny fee, Ticketmaster. The US justice system is a joke lol. What's the point of declaring them guilty for this stuff but then tack on a fee that basically is fractions of a percent of the profits they made from their exploitation?

So they were basically a Cartel?

Just remember a fine is just a fee for the wealthy. It only punishes the poor.

Pro musician here. Good to see this, but there’s still a lot of work to do. I’m of the belief that major shows and tours should be accessible to local and regional acts; hell, I’d support a law where, to receive government money (like most major venues do,) they’d be required to have local/regional acts on a majority percentage of their shows. Give local artists actual opportunity instead of keeping them exiled to shitty sports bars and pay-to-play clubs that nobody gives a shit about. I could tell an endless amount of stories that would depress you beyond belief if you have any interest whatsoever in supporting local music and/or art in general. Young bands (or their parents) going broke buying on to major tours, hell, significant bands going broke playing well-sold tours because they ended up in situations with money going too many different places, too many hands in the jar. I can count on one hand how many concert venues in the entire f****** USA I actually trust. The same goes for promoters. It’s sad.

Ok let’s show some f’n balls and Paramount ur next!

Break up the monopolies. Fines don't work.

Well Duh! This has been the case for decades. Back in the 80s, the government split up the bell system (AT&T) as a monopoly. I am not saying this wasn't warranted but I certainly have seen many companies eclipse the stranglehold on services once held by AT&T and nothing came of their rise to prominence. Here are companies that got too big (Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Time Warner, Consolidation of broadcasting companies (Radio, news, etc.) While I am glad this action is taking place, how about addressing the other goliaths that... who am I kidding, this argument is pointless.

And the sky is blue. Even artists have been calling them out since forever. Ticketmaster has hell to pay for being a bunch of greedy cunts. I have no doubt in my mind that they can price events to be affordable, and still make a hefty profit. F*** them for real

I pay more in fees using their monopoly than any judgment will make them pay

Now for absolutely nothing of consequence to happen.

I hope their CEOs rot in jail but that’s too much to ask for in Nazi America

I don’t think I paid Live Nation and Ticketmaster an extra $1.72 for a concert ticket, according to the article. These thieves took at least $200 or more from me when I bought a concert ticket.

I really doubt this will benefit the consumer at the end of the day. Venues/acts may get a bigger piece of the pie, but as long as concerts continue to sell out there's no reason for prices to come down.

The result of this will eventually just be a fine. And the result of that will just be that they make a random small % of people at the company redundant. Whilst the people at the top will be completely unaffected

File that under 'Wow No Shit.'

Watch as they pay a small 'cost of doing business' fine and keep going.

Where's my muthafucking money Ticketmaster?

I once regrettably needed to sell some tickets using Stubhub and the decimal place on the tickets got fucked up, I can't remember the exact specifics but it was something like it should have been £250 as per face each and it ended up being £2.50. So a £1000 set of 4 tickets became £10. To this day I maintain this was not a "me" mistake but had no screenshots or listing confirmations or anything to be able to prove it. I was not sent an email confirming the listing or the listing price. There were no checks or balances to get me to confirm that it was in my wishes to sell a set of tickets for *way below* face value, that no reasonable person would ever agree to do. When they (quickly) sold, possibly the buyer gouging to resell on later, I rang up and informed them of this and told them to void the transaction. They bombarded me with a load of contractual and legal spiel, including that they have a "fan guarantee" and that I must recompense the buyer for up to face value of the tickets for the disappointment of my actions which was essentially a £1000 bill that tried to sucker me into a loophole of honouring the sale. In the end, I ended up having to pay a fee ~£100 to keep it out of court. I was prepared to do the court thing, and the stubborn old goat in me sometimes wishes he had (might have secured some damages for the stress it caused too!) - but in the end I thought for £100 life is too short. Summary - these companies are scum and will do anything to f*** you over! We need to vote with our feet where we can, but is difficult when most of the good live entertainment runs through their dirty little hands.

Didn’t Pearl Jam call this 30 years ago?

Isn’t this like, the 3rd or 4th time this conclusion had been reached about Ticketmaster et al? It feels like Déjà vu all over again. I can’t recall when the last time was, but I’m sure I remember a similar shitstorm about TicketMaster at LEAST 2 or 3 times in the past. I thought they had bee found liable for the same thing a few times previously… Am I just misremembering?

Now do Paramount and FAANG

Only took 30 years to figure that out. Most of us knew in the 90s

The only change will be a new “Court cost recovery fee”

It’s not even just “big” venues. It’s almost all venues.

Shit I knew in 1999 for 100 Alex.

Good on the states. The settlement with the DOJ was a slap on a wrist. 

Can't wait for my $0.11 class action restitution.

I stopped going to concerts about 20 years ago for this reason. I remember tickets for lawn weee only $15 and shirts were only $10 to $15. Beer was only $3. Someone baught me jimmy buffet seats 5 years ago $50 for parking, idk how much the tickets were but beer was $15 each and shirts near $100. Nope!

I’ll take “no f****** shit” for 500, Alex.

THEY’RE THE SAME COMPANY…it’s vertical integration. This is a perfect example of how capitalism does not work for the masses, it only works for the wealthy. Despite the verdict, less than $2.00 in damages per ticket sold is bullshit. Oh, and their statement that the jury isn’t the last word means that Trump will bail them out because Live Nation paid $500,000 to Trump’s inauguration pay to play fund.

Don’t just break them up. Dissolve them. There are many alternatives who don’t screw over their customer base for a living. At some point we gotta give these criminal corporations (and the warlords behind them) the death penalty.

I have vivid memories of waiting in line at my local record/CD store to buy concert tickets. For major concerts, sometimes there would be a line, but tickets were always affordable and always accessible. System for the last decade or so is absolute horseshit

They literally let “brokers” AKA scalpers, buy up with bots to create false scarcity then resell on their same website for inflated ads prices. They have zero incentive to stop scalpers from doing this shit because they get a percentage back on BOTH the original purchase and the resale. USA is so behind with a bunch of shit. There’s many European countries that make it illegal to resell tickets for events at an up charge. You literally have to sell them at cost of cheaper.

in other news, fire is hot and things fall down when you let go of them

So where is the class action lawsuit?! We should be getting checks.