Voters reward politicians who make their lives better, even in small ways.
Keeping your shoes on in the TSA line, a few hundred extra dollars in your federal tax refund, unnatural dyes removed from your kids’ cereal—Americans will remember these little improvements when they head to the polls in November.
With the war in Iran dominating news coverage, President Donald Trump needs his entire administration laser focused on delivering as many of these micro wins as possible.
Unfortunately, in its first major antitrust action after the departure of Gail Slater—the tough-on-monopoly head of the Antitrust Division—Justice Department lawyers appear to have retreated to the same weak settlement approach that frustrated conservatives for years.
The DOJ’s bipartisan lawsuit against Live Nation (also Ticketmaster’s owner), which 39 states and the District of Columbia signed onto, was a golden opportunity. Everybody hates inflated ticket prices and the ridiculous junk fees that accompany them, but we’re stuck paying them because Live Nation is pretty much the only game in town.
The company controls 64% of the country’s highest-grossing amphitheaters and 78% of the most lucrative arenas. Its biggest competitors operate 5% and 9%, respectively.
It also provides the lion’s share of promotion and ticketing services for shows at these top venues, domineering an eye-popping 80% of the primary ticketing marketplace.
Big isn’t automatically bad, but Live Nation abuses this vertically integrated monopoly to harm artists, competitors, and customers.
Artists get locked out of Live Nation venues if they opt for rival promoters or ticketers (an illegal practice known as “tying”).
Those competitors—who might have offered better deals—get forced out of the market.
Concertgoers, with no other options in sight, bite the bullet and pay whatever Live Nation demands.
If DOJ’s lawyers had stayed the course, they could have lowered prices and introduced real competition into the live entertainment industry by forcing Live Nation to sell off Ticketmaster.
Instead, they offered the company a slap-on-the-wrist settlement this week, just one week after the trial began.
Yes, the settlement requires Live Nation to pay a stated $280 million, but according to some estimates, that’s just four days’ worth of revenue for the company—a drop in the bucket. It mandates that Live Nation get rid of the exclusive booking arrangements it has at 13 venues, but it doesn’t force the company to divest a single one of the venues it owns.
This agreement looks like the bare minimum DOJ lawyers could demand while still claiming victory. It won’t deliver anything close to the relief consumers could have expected if DOJ had argued and won its case.
That’s why so many Republican attorneys generals have expressed their distaste, announcing that they will continue the litigation on their end. They are even pushing for a mistrial. North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson went so far as to call it “a terrible deal that USDOJ hid from the states until the last minute.”
Settling would have made sense if the government’s lawyers had thought they’d lose at trial, but they had no reason to think that would happen. The judge overseeing the case had already shot down Live Nation’s motions for dismissal and summary judgment and seemed highly skeptical of the company’s arguments.
This is not the kind of antitrust enforcement conservatives expected after President Trump promised a tougher stance on monopolies that hurt working Americans. DOJ antitrust czar Gail Slater promised to usher in a new, more aggressive approach for the age of working-class conservatism. Instead, she was forced out last month, and DOJ immediately returned to its usual practice of deferring to Big Business.
Multiple states are still pursuing lawsuits against Live Nation, as is Trump’s Federal Trade Commission under Chairman Andrew Ferguson. But by squandering its opportunity to remove a source of annoyance that plagues millions of Americans every year, Trump’s DOJ has made this fight tougher.
The president should intercede and ensure that his Justice Department doesn’t close the book on this case so soon. Trump promised to stand up to monopolies that hurt working Americans. His DOJ must make sure that promise includes Live Nation.
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