this post was submitted on 21 Nov 2023
231 points (98.7% liked)

News

23311 readers
3404 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

A Senate subcommittee on investigations issued a subpoena looking to force the concert giant to submit documents on ticket prices and fees

A Senate subcommittee issued a subpoena to live music giant Live Nation Entertainment late last week, seeking documents related to ticket prices and fees listed on Ticketmaster.

The subpoena, obtained by Rolling Stone, comes eight months after the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations first launched an inquiry into Live Nation over the company’s “business practices, including the prices and fees for tickets to live events sold by Live Nation/Ticketmaster,” requesting the documents related to that inquiry on March 24th. That inquiry hadn’t been publicly reported prior to the subpoena filing, as the company faces broader regulatory scrutiny over potential antitrust concerns.

But as Subcommittee chairman Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) claimed in the subpoena last week, the company hasn’t cooperated with the request to this point. “Despite nearly eight months and extensive efforts to obtain voluntary compliance, Live Nation/Ticketmaster has failed to fully comply with PSI’s requests, including refusing to produce certain documents critical to the Subcommittee’s inquiry,” Blumenthal wrote.

all 22 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 72 points 1 year ago (5 children)

I realize that Live Nation is a really shitty company that rips people off, but it's like the lowest rung of the ladder if the Senate is going to go after corporations.

Let me know when they're going to start to get fed up with Google. Or Pfizer. Or McKinsey. Or any fucking oil company.

[–] Zoboomafoo@lemmy.world 45 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I think (hope) it's just a proof of concept. Nobody relies on Ticketmaster working for their daily life, and everybody dislikes the service. So the goverment has a lot of support to meddle in it, then if it goes well they'll be able to hold it up as an example of the benefits of regulation

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 30 points 1 year ago

You are far more optimistic than I am. I don't expect them to ever go after big donors.

[–] rah@feddit.uk 20 points 1 year ago (1 children)

it's like the lowest rung of the ladder if the Senate is going to go after corporations

What the Senate is going after is votes. Voters care out being ripped off by Live Nation.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'd say they're being ripped off by all of those other corporations too. And maybe they should be made to realize that. But of course those companies are the big donors.

Also, heaven forbid the government get voters to care about oil companies destroying the planet. Imagine congress going up against them. Not that it would ever happen.

[–] Uncle_Bagel@midwest.social 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Ticketmaster/Live Nation sre the most visible monopoly in most people's lives. Your average person doesn't realize how much companies like Nestle and Unilever actually own and control. But we are all forced to use Ticketmaster's broken apps and pay their exorbitant fees to see our favorite love entertainment. An optimistic view is that LiveNation is a slam dunk first step to more trust busting.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago

An optimistic view is that LiveNation is a slam dunk first step to more trust busting.

How likely do you think that is?

[–] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Add Cargill and Nestle to that list. And the people that produce crop seeds; and john deer and other farm equipment peeps. Maybe we should just go with big ag.

Edit: Walmart and Kroger and Amazon too

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The list could be very long of companies more deserving of this sort of scrutiny than LiveNation. The priorities are insane, but they're based on money.

[–] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yup.

Another one: Koch industries. I’m just spitballing here in any case anyone who can make them go away feels like making the world a better place. Don’t worry, their absence will be filled quickly enough

[–] Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Aren't they going after Google right now? I believe Amazon is also in their sights.

[–] aelwero@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They supposed to pass a law that says "businesses can't be shitty"? That's rather subjective...

They're after live nation for two reasons... One, because monopoly, and two, because live nation made the mistake of using the term "fees" a little too capriciously and started looking like an alphabet agency.

Government don't want anyone horning in on their monopoly on fees, now do they? If those "fees" are in fact even remotely legit, then they ought to be going into uncle Sam's pockets... Ya know?

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I didn't say anything about passing a law. They're not passing a law involving LiveNation either. When have they ever given this much scrutiny to an oil company? And if you want to talk monopolies, when have they ever given this much scrutiny to Google?

[–] SeaJ@lemm.ee 26 points 1 year ago

Voluntary compliance does not work and never fucking has. Legislate.

[–] Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works 19 points 1 year ago

I don't disagree with any of y'all about any of the other corporations and individuals Congress should be going after, but I do think the Senate (which itself is a mess, but not as bad as the House) going after predatory ticketing practices is a good step. A better one would be to give a regulatory agency real teeth and funding to prosecute all kinds of predatory business practices, so the Senate could get back to making laws.

[–] OhmsLawn@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago

Probably time to rebrand again...

[–] MNByChoice@midwest.social 11 points 1 year ago

It has been proven repeatedly lately that congressional subpoenas are ignorable. (Court ones are not ignorable. They will throw you in jail for that.)

[–] pete_the_cat@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

"We don't operate as a monopoly"... says the monopoly.