“Monopolies don’t care about consumers. Monopolies care about enhancing their monopolistic control over a marketplace,” said Robert Herrell, executive director of the Consumer Federation of California, who is concerned about Ticketmaster’s power. “And in the ticketing industry, we have a monopoly.”
The group worked with Assemblymember Laura Friedman (D-Glendale) to introduce a transparent ticket-pricing bill that would have also barred primary ticket providers like Ticketmaster from restricting the resale of tickets. Consumer advocates say allowing people to transfer their tickets on other sites could be a check against Ticketmaster’s dominance, whose parent company Live Nation Entertainment controls 70% of the market for ticketing and live events.