https://news.bloomberglaw.com/antitrust/bad-blood-swifties-start-wave-of-ticketmaster-monopoly-scrutiny
“There’s a bigger problem in antitrust with behavioral remedies generally,” said Kevin Erickson, director of the Future of Music Coalition, an advocacy group participating in the letter campaign. “They force competitors, artists, and venues who don’t have a lot of resources or a sophisticated understanding of what is and isn’t legal to perform this unpaid labor of being the cops and monitoring for violations.”
Ticketmaster also tussled in private litigation over its market powers, but recent lawsuits have largely been unsuccessful. Most ended up in arbitration, although at least two are still pending at federal courts.
Ticketmaster’s dominance in the primary ticket-selling market drives competitors to look for gains in the secondary, reselling market, Erickson said. But Ticketmaster has a presence there, too, and at times has released tickets directly into the secondary market. That can drive up prices even more, critics say.
“If you’re a ticketing company trying to spend limited development budget to build innovative technology, you’re mostly shut out of primary sale marketplaces, so you’re focused on getting really good at facilitating resale,” Erickson said. “That reinforces the dysfunction in a way, because it becomes an arms race between resellers and technologies meant to keep stuff off the secondary market.”