Consumer Federation of California

Sacramento, CA – Today, Robert Herrell, Executive Director of the Consumer Federation of California, issued the following statement in response to Trump DOJ and Live Nation/Ticketmaster settlement announcement:

“The more I look at this settlement the worse it gets. This is precisely what we’re warned against with the current Trump Administration – a monopoly using their power, money and connections to get a sweetheart deal from the President. This is basically yet another consent decree supposedly limiting the monopoly’s behavior – but history has shown that every single previous agreement with the Live Nation/Ticketmaster monopoly wasn’t worth the paper it was printed on and was immediately and regularly violated by Live Nation/Ticketmaster as a matter of their monopolistic policies. Why should this be any different? It won’t. This is whack-a-mole taken to an extreme level – rig the market, reap the benefits and then cut a deal that steps on consumers and competitors. Thank goodness Attorneys General from blue, red, and purple states are rejecting this settlement – it is about as cynical and sycophantic a “deal” as we’ve ever seen. Rule one of monopolies – they never give up power. It always has to be taken from them. The monopoly should be broken up and then perhaps elements of this “agreement” might be up for discussion. But this deal stinks and consumers can smell the stench from miles away.”