Monday, July 27, 2009

DOJ Pressured Over Ticketmaster Merger

As Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman Herb Kohl, D-Wis., urged the Justice Department on Monday to take caution as it investigates a pending merger between Live Nation and Ticketmaster, Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., sent a stronger message to regulators -- essentially asking that the $2.5 billion all-stock transaction be blocked. Kohl wrote to Assistant Attorney General Christine Varney saying she should approve the pairing only if she finds the deal is unlikely to lead to higher prices for consumers or cause substantial harm to competition in the concert ticketing and promotions. Read more on that in CongressDaily's PM Edition (subscription required).

Pascrell, whose letter was signed by more than 40 colleagues, wrote that "consumers, business managers, artists, independent promoters, and music fans in every state are likely to suffer if the merger is allowed to occur." The lawmaker has also urged a federal probe of Ticketmaster since its February sale of tickets for Bruce Springsteen's latest concert tour. Online ticket buyers were redirected by Ticketmaster to its higher priced re-sale site, TicketsNow.com, when the tickets were first offered for sale. He has also introduced a bill intended to bring greater transparency to the ticketing marketplace. The companies have justified the deal on efficiency grounds and argued it will benefit consumers.

In February, the CEOs of Live Nation and Ticketmaster tried mightily to convince skeptical senators that their merger would ultimately benefit performing artists and consumers. The executives argued at a hearing that competitors abound in the concert and ticketing arenas, but the system is broken from an artist and fan perspective. Read coverage of that hearing here (subscription required).