Ticketmaster’s latest monopoly power play will make concerts more expensive

Fix America’s broken ticketing industry.

In just a few weeks, the federal government is expected to present President Trump with a plan aimed at addressing the flaws in America’s ticketing industry. As the deadline looms, lobbying efforts are ramping up, and unsurprisingly, Ticketmaster — the industry’s monopolistic giant with strong connections in Washington — is pulling out all the stops to influence the outcome.

Its latest maneuver? Advocating for a federal cap on ticket resale prices, touting it as a measure to protect fans from scalpers.

But let’s be clear: Ticketmaster isn’t genuinely concerned about scalpers. In fact, it profits from the very bots it claims to oppose. Recent emails, uncovered in an August Federal Trade Commission lawsuit, revealed a Ticketmaster employee advising a scalper that if they had succeeded in gaming the system and exploiting loopholes, the tickets they procured didn’t need to be returned.

This revelation speaks volumes about Ticketmaster’s true intentions.

Real ticket reform should focus on robust enforcement of anti-scalping laws to hold Ticketmaster accountable, rather than granting the company a government-backed avenue to crush its competition. Unfortunately, that’s precisely…