Monopolies, scalpers, and the future of online ticket sales

is a senior policy reporter at The Verge, covering the intersection of Silicon Valley and Capitol Hill. She spent 5 years covering tech policy at CNBC, writing about antitrust, privacy, and content moderation reform. Two years after a Taylor Swift ticketing debacle riled up fans and policymakers across the country, Ticketmaster is still fighting a multipronged battle against efforts to break it up and change the rules of the industry in ways resellers are vying for — in what’s become a multimillion-dollar and nationwide struggle over the future of online ticketing. Live Nation Entertainment — a live events behemoth that operates Ticketmaster, owns hundreds of event venues, and manages and promotes major artists through numerous subsidiaries — has long been accused of running a monopoly. But it caught renewed attention from legislators and policymakers in late 2022, when its Ticketmaster platform crashed amid “unprecedented demand” for Swift’s Eras Tour. The disaster sparked widesprea ... Read full article.