A couple of related articles.
Ticketmaster has always been a scammy, American crapitalistict business.
I don't know if lack of competition is the major cause of inflation but it can certainly add to it.
How Ticketmaster gets away with it
As the pandemic has waned, millions of Americans were excited to return to live concerts, sports, and comedy shows. The cost of attending an event, however, has exploded. Yes, the face value of these tickets has gone up considerably. But an even bigger problem is "fees," which can be "as high as 75% of the ticket price." Worse, consumers are increasingly forced to buy tickets on the secondary market, where prices and fees are even higher.
These issues can be traced back to one company: Live Nation Entertainment....
In 2010, Ticketmaster was already a dominant player in the primary ticketing market. But that year, the Department of Justice approved a merger between Ticketmaster and Live Nation, the world's largest concert promoter and Ticketmaster's only significant competitor in the ticketing space. According to a new report by the Economic Liberties Project, the merged company, Live Nation Entertainment, is a "monopolistic company that can get away with ripping off… fans and strong-arming venues."
Bullard Becomes Wall Street’s Go-To Guy for Hint of a Fed Pivot
His own preferred theory for how to keep prices in check highlights the importance of competition. “It has to come through the businesses themselves, the price-setters in the economy,” he says. “They have to have the fear of God in them that if they raise their prices too much, they’re going to lose market share.”
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