The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing yesterday on Ticketmaster's dominance in the ticketing industry following its merger with Live Nation. Live Nation President and CFO Joe Berchtold defended Ticketmaster following its mishandling of concert sales for Taylor Swift's upcoming tour and denied the company holds a monopoly over ticketing services
Berchtold said the problems with ticket sales for Swift's tour were due to "three times the amount of bot traffic than we had ever experienced." The bot activity “required us to slow down and even pause our sales. This is what led to a terrible consumer experience that we deeply regret.”
But Jack Groetzinger, CEO of SeatGeek, spoke out against Ticketmaster alleging that many venue owners “fear losing Live Nation concerts if they don’t use Ticketmaster” and its services, and argued the company must be broken up. Groetzinger went on to say, “As long as Live Nation remains both the dominant concert promoter and ticketer of major venues in the US, the industry will continue to lack competition and struggle.”
Source: CNN