Tell the Justice Department to Break Up Ticketmaster!

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Tell the Justice Department to Break Up Ticketmaster!

U.S. Department of Justice

Chrissy with her daughter Nora. Both are smiling at the camera.

It’s becoming more and more clear that Ticketmaster (owned by Live Nation) has become a monopoly that is making it harder for venues and artists to put on performances, and for fans to see their favorite performers. Chrissy is a mom who had a presale code and spent 8 hours trying to buy tickets for her 6-year-old daughter Nora to see her hero, Taylor Swift. By the end of the day, the tickets had sold out, Chrissy couldn’t get any tickets, and now scalpers are selling seats for up to $45,000! The story is the same for thousands of parents and kids across the United States.

Live Nation-Ticketmaster is a monopoly and it’s acting like it. Since its merger in 2010, Live Nation-Ticketmaster now controls over 70% of the ticketing and venue market, leaving artists with little alternative and making tickets more and more expensive for families..

The Department of Justice can make things better for consumers, artists, and small venues by moving to break up Live Nation-Ticketmaster. Sign the petition today!

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ParentsTogether

To: U.S. Department of Justice
From: [Your Name]

Earlier this month, thousands of parents tried to buy Taylor Swift concert tickets for their kids, to no avail. It emerged that the system was completely unprepared for the number of people who would try to buy tickets - even though they were all verified fans in Ticketmaster’s own system. By the end of the week, many parents and fans had spent hours trying to buy tickets, only to be shut out and forced to miss the concert or buy tickets for thousands of dollars from scalpers.

This is far from the first time Ticketmaster has mistreated families by overcharging fans with meaningless fees (which can be up to 75% the total cost of the ticket), allowing scalpers to buy up tickets, and having systems not up to meet their basic business model of selling tickets. We are especially concerned with the way this impacts families, as Ticketmaster sells tickets for every imaginable kind of event, including shows like Bluey, Disney on Tour, and local theater and arts events. Parents are already squeezed by rising prices - it’s not fair for them to have to pay for the nose to do something nice for their kids.

All this while Ticketmaster just had its best financial quarter, and the CEO just got a raise of $30 million!

12 years ago, your department allowed Ticketmaster and Live Nation to merge. This has been a disaster for fans, venues, and artists. Live Nation and Ticketmaster now own more than 70% of the ticketing and venue market. So they are free to charge junk fees as much as they want, and they have no incentive to improve their ticket-selling tickets so fans have a better chance of actually getting tickets.

The Department of Justice must move to break up Live Nation-Ticketmaster. Your department already found it was violating the terms of its merger by bullying small venues. This is even more proof of monopolistic behavior and it can’t be tolerated. It’s time to act now.