Congress is saying "I Knew You Were Trouble" to Live Nation Entertainment (LYV).
Capitol Hill ramped up its fight against the parent company of Ticketmaster during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday following November's fiasco with Taylor Swift concert tickets.
The hearing included testimony from high-profile witnesses such as Live Nation Entertainment President and CFO Joe Berchtold, SeatGeek CEO Jack Groetzinger, and JAM Productions CEO and President Jerry Mickelson, among others.
"This is all the definition of monopoly," said Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota. "Live Nation is so powerful that it doesn't even need to exert pressure, it doesn't need to threaten, because people just fall in line."
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat and staunch critic of Live Nation, agreed, saying that "unwinding the merger ought to be on the table," referring to Live Nation's 2010 deal to acquire Ticketmaster.
Some Wall Street analysts, however, have argued a break up wouldn't necessarily solve the problems surrounding the unregulated secondary ticket market.
"The only way to restore competition in this industry is to break up Ticketmaster and Live Nation," SeatGeek's Groetzinger said, emphasizing Live Nation is "unequivocally" a monopoly that prevents both competition and innovation within the space.
A previous court filing from the Department of Justice revealed Live Nation commands more than 80% of the market, although Berchtold contended Live Nation's market share is now closer to 50% to 60%.
Critics argue the company controls the largest and most profitable venues, with lengthy and exclusive venue contracts that can last up to 10 or more years.
Investors seemed to shrug off the initial impact of Tuesday's hearing, with shares of Live Nation up about 2% in mid-afternoon trading.
The stock, which hit its lowest level since February 2021 in the immediate wake of the Swift debacle, has climbed more than 10% since the start of the year, though is still off roughly 30% from a year ago.
Live Nation and Ticketmaster first merged in 2010 to become a multi-billion dollar business operating, in some cases, as a three-in-one entity: event promoter, venue operator, and ticketing service.
Live Nation's Berchtold said the company controls roughly 5% of venues in the country. He said artists set the base pay for tickets, with fees determined by the venue. This was a prominent issue highlighted during the hearing, as add-on fees have skyrocketed for consumers in recent years.
Nevertheless, there also seemed to be confusion on who exactly sets those prices. Musician Clyde Lawrence, a witness during Tuesday's hearing, argued every venue he's performed at claims ticket fees are not the venue’s responsibility.
"There seems to be a lot of frustration with transparency in the industry," Josh Katz, founder and CEO of Web3 marketplace and NFT ticketing company YellowHeart, told Yahoo Finance. He suggested one "huge step forward" would include banning exclusive ticketing agreements with venues, along with providing fans, artists, and teams greater clarity on certain processes.
"Live Nation and Ticketmaster have become sort of a corporate punching bag, but I actually believe that Ticketmaster is part of the solution — it's not part of the problem," Douglas Arthur, analyst at Huber Research Partners, previously told Yahoo Finance.
"The secondary market is the wild wild west, and it's unregulated. … Fans pay too much and the artist doesn't benefit from the proceeds," he added, explaining Ticketmaster's dynamic pricing and Verified Ticket Program attempts to bring some order and regulation to that market.
A break up could be a material risk, however, as "the two companies are kind of joined at the head because of their mutual dependency on each other," Arthur said.
Ultimately, the Swift "situation is a one-off for me," he said. "The demand was through the roof — they misjudged that, but this is a one-off."
Live Nation CFO Berchtold maintained during Tuesday's hearing that bot attacks were mostly to blame for the Swift ticketing debacle.
"This is what led to a terrible consumer experience, which we deeply regret," he said.
Mickelson, who leads live entertainment producer Jam Productions, slammed the excuse.
"For the leading ticket company not to be able to handle bots is, for me, an unbelievable statement," he said.
"You can’t blame bots for what happened to Taylor Swift," Mickelson added. "There’s more to that story that you’re not hearing."
Berchtold, meanwhile, said the company has learned "valuable lessons" since the meltdown: "In hindsight there are several things we could have done better. … We need to do better, and we will."
Alexandra is a Senior Entertainment and Media Reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @alliecanal8193 and email her at alexandra.canal@yahoofinance.com
Click here for the latest trending stock tickers of the Yahoo Finance platform
Click here for the latest stock market news and in-depth analysis, including events that move stocks
Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance
Download the Yahoo Finance app for Apple or Android
Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flipboard, LinkedIn, and YouTube
Related Quotes
IMAX CEO Richard Gelfond is warning those who bet against the theatrical industry.
Senators and witnesses sound off Tuesday at a Senate hearing focusing in large part on Ticketmaster's botched sale of Taylor Swift tickets in November.
With BLACKPINK's contract with YG Entertainment set to expire in August, the topic of whether the group members will renew their agreement with the talent agency has been the subject of much discussion on social media. While YG Entertainment has stated that it intends to renew the group's contract, reports have surfaced that this would not be easy as the members are being offered much higher pay from other labels. An earlier rumor has surfaced that while the members will remain as a group, they plan on following in the footsteps of BIGBANG member Taeyang, who signed a contract with agency The Black Label.
He never really planned to start a museum, he was just a collector — albeit a collector with an impressive set of artifacts.
"Feeling grateful for my physical body right now, in its present state, before neurological degeneration attempts to take some of me from me,” she wrote on Instagram
A couple weeks ago, Tesla dropped the price of its Model Y in the U.S. by $13,000, probably in part because they are worried about demand, though also because the IRS deemed the Model Y a car. That meant the Model Y wouldn’t qualify for tax incentives because its old price was over the $55,000 limit, but its new price, $52,990, would qualify. Now Tesla has changed the Model Y’s starting price again, to $53,490, without explanation.
Joe Burrow is playing quarterback at a thermonuclear level right now. Here's how the Chiefs can at least slow him down.
With the Grammys just a few weeks away, the Recording Academy has announced a first wave of performers set to take the stage at Los Angeles’ Crypto.com arena on the big night.
"Ticketmaster should look in the mirror and say, 'I'm the problem, it's me,'" one senator quipped.
The parallel investigations into how President Biden and former President Donald Trump handled classified documents have made for an extraordinary moment in Washington, with a special counsel appointed to each case by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland.
Senators want to know if the 2010 merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster created a company that didn't feel urgency to invest in its technology.
Mayors of American cities are overwhelmingly concerned about climate change and how it will affect their city, but they are much more divided on whether to restrict the use of fossil fuels in home appliances and lawn tools like gas stoves and leaf blowers, according to a survey released last week.
Administrators at Richneck Elementary in Newport News, Va., were warned three times on the day of the shooting that left Abigail Zwerner in critical condition. The revelation has prompted Dr. Ebony Parker, the school's assistant principal, to resign, a school-district spokesperson confirmed Wednesday.
The Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday is holding a hearing to examine “how consolidation in the live entertainment and ticketing industries harms customers and artists alike,” as a response to the recent Taylor Swift tickets fiasco with major distributor Ticketmaster. The ticket company canceled Swift’s concert sale in mid-November when it couldn’t resolve problems that…
With the slimy ways that dealers often do business, it always comes as a surprise when dealers get a win—and one that’s both right and verifiable. For that, you have to give credit where it’s due. In this case, one dealer’s camera system has been used to catch customers lying about the service department damaging their vehicles, Automotive News reports.
Walmart raised its minimum hourly wage to $14 from $12 for store formats, while the minimum for Sam's Club is $15 and for fulfillment centers is $16.
Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle slammed the company’s handling of November’s botched Taylor Swift ticket sale, as well as its prices and fees. ABC News’ Andrea Fujii reports.
A mass shooting at a Valero gas station in Oakland, California that left one dead and seven others injured happened while a music video was being filmed, reports say.
Shemar Moore announced earlier this month that he and girlfriend Jesiree Dizon were expecting their first child together
Alaska Airlines has cut plastic cups from its in-flight beverage service, the first major carrier to eliminate the polluting material for drink service.
