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By Brian Joseph\/Capitol Weekly<\/p>\n
By Brian Joseph\/Capitol Weekly<\/p>\n
Ticketmaster and its parent company Live Nation are\u00a0once again<\/a>\u00a0neck deep in state legislation they contend would protect consumers but which critics say is really aimed at furthering their monopoly over live event ticketing in California and the United States.<\/p>\n In late January, the Assembly passed AB 1349<\/a> by Assemblymember Isaac Bryan (D-Ladera Heights) to ban resellers from listing tickets they don\u2019t actually have, a practice known as speculative ticketing. A week later, in early February, Assemblymember Matt Haney (D-San Francisco), introduced\u00a0AB 1720<\/a>, a spot bill\u00a0intended to cap the resale price of concert tickets<\/a>\u00a0at no more than 10 percent above their face value, including fees.<\/p>\n Live Nation<\/a>\u00a0supports<\/a>\u00a0both<\/a>\u00a0bills<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 and that raises alarm with some consumer advocates. The U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission are both suing Live Nation and Ticketmaster for allegedly\u00a0thwarting competition<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0employing deceptive pricing tactics<\/a>\u00a0while controlling more than 80% of the primary ticketing at major concert venues.<\/p>\n California Attorney General Rob Bonta is one of the litigants in the DOJ case, which\u00a0kicked off its trial this month<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cLive Nation has manipulated the market and made itself untouchable by any competitor \u2013 not because it is better, but because it has created a monopoly,\u201d Bonta said in\u00a0a press release<\/a>. \u201cThis is illegal, plain and simple, and artists, their fans, and the live venues that support them are hurting as a result.\u201d<\/p>\n In the past, advocates have accused Ticketmaster and Live Nation of trying to increase their dominance over the live ticketing market through California legislation and they say details of AB 1349 indicate it is more of the same.<\/p>\n \u201cThe monopoly wants nothing more than to crush and eliminate their competition,\u201d said Robert Herrell, executive director of the\u00a0Consumer Federation of California<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cYou have to understand the long-term objective and impact of the Live Nation-Ticketmaster monopoly, and it is to gain more power,\u201d he said. \u201cMonopolies never give up or cede power. It has to be taken from them.\u201d<\/p>\n Three sections of AB 1349 worry consumer advocates the most: definitions of \u201cticket\u201d and \u201crights holder\u201d and a proposed amendment to Section 22505.5 of the Business and Professions Code to prohibit the purchase or sale of tickets in violation of venue operators or event presenters\u2019 terms and conditions.<\/p>\n In the past, advocates have accused Ticketmaster and Live Nation of trying to increase their dominance over the live ticketing market through California legislation and they say details of AB 1349 indicate it is more of the same.<\/p>\n Advocates say that the definitions are worded so that consumers wouldn\u2019t actually buy tickets anymore but rather licenses to attend events, which would allow Ticketmaster to put whatever restrictions it wants on them, including resale bans or a requirement that you resell tickets on its platform.<\/p>\n The B&P revision would make Ticketmaster\u2019s terms and conditions enforceable under state law, which they say is unprecedented.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you buy a ticket, you have no rights to sell it or give it to a friend, and then tickets will be more expensive,\u201d said Pastor Tecoy Porter Sr., president of the\u00a0National Action Network Sacramento<\/a>, a local chapter of the civil rights and social justice organization originally founded by Rev. Al Sharpton. \u201cAB 1349 takes rights away from you and me and gives them to a monopoly.\u201d<\/p>\n Neither Live Nation nor Bryan responded to\u00a0Capitol Weekly\u00a0requests for comment, but Haney said his bill was inspired by legislative proposals elsewhere and developed through conversations with venues, artists and consumers. He said Ticketmaster and Live Nation have had nothing to do with it.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re not involved with the bill at all. Our sponsors are the venues and the artists. They\u2019re the ones who have been pushing for a solution to make sure actual fans get access to tickets,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cTicketmaster is a huge secondary sales platform,\u201d the assemblymember added. \u201cThey have to abide by these limits as well and they actually have a lot to lose in this. But they\u2019re not involved in this at all. I don\u2019t even know who represents Ticketmaster in Sacramento.\u201d<\/p>\n Herrell said that\u2019s not persuasive.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Live Nation-Ticketmaster monopoly, whether they have authored or written language that shows up in these bills directly or indirectly is less important than the fact that the nature of the whole debate that we\u2019ve been having the last few years in the Legislature is within the framing provided by the monopoly,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cNo matter what the stories is being told by the authors of those bills, and I\u2019m as unhappy as the next person with high prices in some cases in the resale market, the real net effect of bills like that becoming law is to strengthen the monopoly,\u201d Herrell said.<\/p>\n This year, Live Nation critics have a new foil in their efforts to torpedo the California legislation: Live Nation\u2019s close affiliation with President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n Live Nation was one of the largest corporate backers of Trump\u2019s inauguration,\u00a0donating $500,000<\/a>. Shortly after he was elected, Live Nation President Joe Berchtold\u00a0said on earnings call<\/a>\u00a0that executives were \u201chopeful\u201d that the new Trump administration would be more favorable to the company than Joe Biden, who was in the Oval Office when the DOJ suit was filed.<\/p>\n Trump was in office when the FTC filed suit in September 2025. The FTC press release announcing the suit even included a quote from commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson saying, \u201cThe Trump-Vance FTC is working hard to ensure that fans have a shot at buying fair-priced tickets, and today\u2019s lawsuit is a monumental step in that direction.\u201d<\/p>\n A few months earlier, in May 2025, Live Nation\u00a0appointed Trump loyalist Richard Grenell to its board of directors<\/a>\u00a0in a move that\u00a0music executives lambasted as a naked attempt to squash the DOJ investigation<\/a>. Live Nation also reportedly\u00a0hired former Trump aide Kellyanne Conway as a political consultant<\/a>.<\/p>\n And late last year,\u00a0Trump pardoned Tim Leiweke<\/a>, a real estate developer who was indicted for alleging orchestrating a conspiracy to rig the bidding process for an arena at the University of Texas. The indictment revealed that\u00a0Ticketmaster secretly funneled payments<\/a>\u00a0to Leiweke and company for encouraging venues to exclusively work with it instead of rival ticketing partners.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat side are we on here in California?\u201d asked Porter, the civil rights leader. \u201cFrom my perspective, a faith and equity perspective, this effort reflects a broader, moral concern about unchecked power, lack of transparency and systems that take rights away from regular people to enrich corporations and it seems like this measure, AB 1349, locks in practices that shuts out our communities.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump\u00a0signed an executive order last year<\/a>\u00a0directing the U.S. Attorney General and the FTC to ensure the enforcement of competition laws in the live event industry. That led Bryan, the author of AB 1349,\u00a0to say in an April 2025 hearing<\/a>\u00a0that his bill \u201cbrought Isaac Bryan and Donald Trump together.\u201d<\/p>\n In January, when the bill was up for a vote on the Assembly Floor, Assemblymember Carl DeMaio (R-San Diego)\u00a0complimented Bryan<\/a>\u00a0for his \u201cbipartisanship\u201d and \u201cjoining with our president in curbing some of the speculative buying and selling of tickets.\u201d<\/p>\n Bryan and DeMaio were referring to the Democrat\u2019s alignment with the president on consumer ticketing issues. But the soundbites also play into the critics\u2019 narrative, that Ticketmaster is linked to Trump and his involvement is all the more reason to reject the California legislation.<\/p>\n