More Government Intervention Won’t Make Concert Tickets Cheaper
The Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have requested public comment on “unfair and anticompetitive practices in live ticketing.” Paying more to see your favorite band—just like for anything else—is frustrating. But neither ticket retailers nor scalpers are to blame for high prices; consumer demand is.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on March 31 that directs the FTC to rigorously enforce the Better Online Ticket Sales Act. Signed into law in 2016, the act outlaws the circumvention of measures used to enforce ticket purchasing limits and other rules set by ticket retailers. The executive order also directs both antitrust agencies to enforce competition laws in the concert and entertainment industry.
Don Boudreaux, professor of economics at George Mason University, tells Reason the antitrust angle is confusing. “It’s hard to see how the original sellers can be charged with behaving monopolistically since the entire thing begins with [them] charging prices that are too low,” he says.
Trump’s order blames “unscrupulous middlemen who sit at the intersection between artists and f
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