Ticketmaster is too big: Democrats and Republicans agree

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Calling Ticketmaster’s exclusive contracts with venues “market manipulation,” State Senator Scott Wilk wants to rein them in with his bill that currently has bipartisan support. Photo by Shutterstock.

In a time of heightened political division, California’s state representatives find themselves agreeing on one thing: the business practices of Ticketmaster and its parent company, Live Nation, must be reined in. State Senator Scott Wilk, a Republican from Santa Clarita, has a bill to stop Ticketmaster from making exclusive ticketing contracts with venues.

“All we want to do is break that exclusive contract that Live Nation and Ticketmaster hoist on venues, to hopefully do a number of things: bring greater transparency, bring greater competition, and hopefully with that, lower ticket prices for consumers,” Wilk says.

He has also signed on to Assembly Bill 8, with Democratic Assemblywoman Laura Friedman, which would require transparency in ticket fees and inflated prices in the secondary markets. Wilk’s bill cleared the Senate unanimously and now makes its way to the Assembly, where he hopes the bipartisan support continues. 

“The problem is: I'm sure Ticketmaster is going to be hiring every lobbying firm in Sacramento to try to kill the bill. And what I'm disappointed in is that if that happens, it's going to happen behind closed doors,” says Wilk. “All their lobbyists have been at all the hearings and thus far they've chosen not to participate….This affects everybody. This is certainly not a partisan issue.”

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Christian Bordal