They should honestly stop screwing around and break up this obvious monopoly. That's the reason they get away with all of the stuff they get away with. Should have been clear at the merger it was an anticompetitive move and never should have been allowed to get to where it is in the first place.
The same people trying to slap LiveNation/TM on the wrist now are the ones who allowed them to be gigantic anyways.
There are like a dozen different monopolies that control most of our lives, its just like the late 1800s all over again. Worthless governments allow worthless rich people to own all of the profits.
The worst part being that democracy's doctor, the "free" press, our ability to diagnose and help ourselves root out disease has been largely absorbed into the borg. How many times did you hear "inflation" in the last 4 years vs. "profit gouging"? Data has shown the majority of price increases were just corporate profit chasing and monopoly/oligopoly flexing on a captive audience.
It would solve so many problems if the default response to mergers was to deny them. Unless companies can show an exceptional benefit to the public in allowing them to merge it shouldn't be allowed.
In less than 30 years, live Nation has amassed over 300 music venues, likely many of you largest local venues. They have cornered the market on ticket sales, dictating how things will be done to even non owned venues. What could possibly be anticompetitive or conflicting??
Live Nation's only mistake here was not sharing enough of their profits with legislators. This is America, for fucks' sake.
Live Nation apparently supports this bill, which is suspicious. Their statement in the article makes it sound like this situation is NOT their fault, when we know that it is. Seems real fishy to me, similar to Apple's support for the right to repair bill that continues to allow them to screw over third party repair shops.
That is extremely concerning.
That's because it's clearly something to quell public protest on the topic while keeping their monopoly with tiny meaningless changes.
If only people knew the power of Boycotting. Imagine if no one bought these tickets ? It's not something essential to your life, don't go to any concert for 1 year and they'll be begging.
If people can't even boycott going to concerts, then we're are really screwed. Correction : Companies will really screw us.
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