If you have yet to hear, there has been some Ticketmaster chaos. That disarray came after thousands of Taylor Swift fans were left without tickets for her upcoming tour. Since then, many people are calling out the ticketing service’s monopoly, including Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who shared her thoughts in a Rolling Stone interview.
Being a member of Congress’s Committee on Economic Disparity and Fairness in Growth, Ocasio-Cortez talked to Rolling Stone in detail about the situation. In the article, she primarily calls for separating the Ticketmaster and Live Nation merger – a partnership that the magazine describes as a “monopolistic environment” in the ticket sales industry.
“I’m supporting unwinding that merger. I don’t believe it should’ve been approved in the first place,” AOC told the publication. “My hope is that the DOJ investigation is going to reveal how grave the abuse of market share and power is and how it’s played a role in the prices that everyday consumers are seeing.”
She points out the fluctuation of prices: “The big thing is how do they justify service charges that make up anywhere between 20 to 100 percent of the ticket’s price? That is really difficult to defend.”
She further mentions how the “nation’s largest ticket vendor with the nation’s largest promoter” relationship affects everyone – from artists to fans. “It affects fans because they are being absolutely fleeced. You’re paying way more than just the base ticket price of going to the show, but additionally, what we’re seeing on top of that is the absolute explosion in the resale market.”
As far as a possible solution goes, she said: “One thing that I hope would happen is that each one of those entities could even pursue their own arrangement. But having it all under one roof hits the entire supply chain of live music.”
Furthermore, today (Nov. 23) Variety reported that Congress would hold a hearing about the lack of the ticketing industry’s competition. The exact date and witnesses are yet to be revealed.
