You wouldnt know sometimes who was speaking, a Democrat or Republican.
They want to help consumers.
There are concert fans that are in red states and blue states.
Joe Berchtold, president and CFO of Live Nation Entertainment, Inc, speaks during a US Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on promoting competition and protecting consumers in live entertainment.(Photo by Mandel NGAN / AFP) (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)
She also pointed to reports that the Justice Department is investigating the company.
If they want to take 10 percent of revenue and call it a facility fee, they can.
Of the latter, he said, Live Nation owns about 200 of 4,000 live venues in the U.S. she said to Berchtold.
He said that they did contact them once in late 2019, but Blackburn continued to press him.
The issue is you have got to beef up your systems, she said.
Nevertheless, he said, We actually believe the ticketing business has never been more competitive.
They broke it up.
That is a solution you better look at, he said.
Ticketmaster already operates under a consent decree with the DOJ.
We apologize to Taylor Swift.
we need to do better and we will do better.
Swift fans were locked out of presales and a public sale was canceled in November.
Klobuchar argued that the ticket debacle was linked to lack of competition in the industry.
Berchtold said that the fees were set by venues.
Live Nation owns about 200 of 4,000 live venues in the U.S, he said.
But Klobuchar later challenged the notion that there was robust competition in the business.
She pointed to one stat that 87% of Billboards list of top artist tours were serviced by Ticketmaster.
Before the hearing, a group of Taylor Swift fans held a demonstration on the Capitol grounds.
I canceled two doctors appointments, but I knew I was going to get my tickets.
I never got my tickets.
If I got tickets into the cart, they were instantly swooped up by bots, other people.
How could they take them out of my cart?
None of it made sense to me.
She added, Who else has the ability to sell tickets?
If you want tickets to a concert, where do you go?
Ticketmaster is the only first-hand ticket sales in town for any big artist.
