It owns the exclusive rights to book shows in "their" venue. Including Sprint center in KC. If a band or an event wants to use Sprint center it must use Ticketmaster to sell the tickets. That's a monopoly.

THIS!
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Think of the price gouging as nothing more than an unfortunate outcome to their shitty monopoly ways... theoretically, the government isn't coming in to say they can only charge $x or whatever.

They're coming in to fix the issues where they've forced everyone in multiple industries to deal with them and them only, where the path to entering the market as a ticket seller doesn't even exist, and probably other issues that gouge not just consumers, but artists, leagues, arenas/stadiums... everyone.

The government is (supposed to be) making the monopoly go away based on laws that have been on the books for 150 years.... the pricing will either fix itself in a fair market or it won't, but sure as hell would be nice.
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To be fair Ticketmaster screwed around with the wrong consumers here. You don't cross the Swifties. Those consumers are about to tell them where to stick it and they may be about to pay for it.

Everyone's talking about the prices but the real kicker with this will be about whether their ticket selling practices get dragged out into the light. It's not just about ticket prices. It's not really a secret that Ticketmaster turns a blind eye to scalpers and bots because Ticketmaster owns the resale market now. They can sell tickets like Taylor Swift's to scalpers, make money on all these "fees" for the initial sale then the scalper turns around and sells the ticket for a big profit and Ticketmaster makes even more on the "fees" for that purchase as well.

This has been a thing for years, in fact there's some belief Ticketmaster encourages it, it's just nobody has ever wanted to touch it: https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/tic...egas-1.4828535
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A monopoly is the opposite of a free market. Livenation and Ticketmaster being the only game in town and being able to charge anything they want is not in the best interest of the American people. This is the exact thing the government should be doing more of.
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They prevent artists from performing at places where they don't control ticket sales.

I'm hoping that's simple enough.
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Good point. You can stay at home and be a dickless loser posting Broncos tweets all day, all night. That will show Ticketmaster.
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Or you can elect politicians that will pass laws that say unregulated monopolies will be broken up.

:-)
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Those days are long gone...
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They have the right but they also produce the shows.

So they have the contact with the artist and then they say you can only buy from us and then they say it costs extra money for that right.
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So in 2010 the government allowed them to merge and now the government is saying "do-over, we fucked up."

This is why I hate government.
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That is a complete misunderstanding of what I think is about to happen here or why it happened in the first place. I really think this is going to be about looking into their business practices and determining whether they were acting unethically based on the fact they had a monopoly. There are other companies who have quite a bit of control over a certain market, but there's also not the evidence that those companies are doing the things Ticketmaster is accused of doing. But we'll find out.
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Awesome.
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Here are a few theoretical questions:
-What if the government wants to regulate beer prices at Dodger Stadium?
-What if the government wants to start blocking player contracts saying they are too excessive?
-What about souvenirs?

The whole sporting and entertainment events industry is so out of control with costs.

I think Ticketmaster is an easy villain.

If Ticketmaster is using extortion tactics, then it should be criminal not civil/antitrust.

The reason for all these lawsuits and actions is that it is a way for states and Feds to extort large amounts of money from corporations to bring into their coffers.

The people affected get shit.

The lawyers and government make out and you get a check for $7.26.
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Strawman much?

If the free market is working, it should be left alone.

If the 'free market' has turned into an essentially unregulated monopoly, or a company that exerts so much power that there is no longer a free market and little prospect of a correction on its own..., then the government getting involved is the lesser of two evils.

No, people don't automatically have to go jail. You just want a functional free market. Free markets don't always happen by magic if left alone. Sometimes free markets end up with a monopoly.

Although if laws have been broke, sure.

It's not that hard in theory, even if it is hard in practice.
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