Ken MacVey in UC Riverside News
Taylor Swift Sales Fiasco Renews Interest in Investigations, Legislation
Best Best & Krieger LLP Partner Kendall (Ken) MacVey was interviewed by UC Riverside News for his take on monopolies, Ticketmaster and the renewed interest in pursuing antitrust cases.
While monopolies by and large are not bad or prohibited by the federal government, “monopolization” is a problem. MacVey notes, “Generally speaking, the problem with monopolization is that it forces consumers to pay more while getting less by inhibiting competition.”
According to MacVey, the waning influence of the pro-market, anti-regulation “Chicago School of Economics,” and the Taylor Swift ticketing fiasco has renewed the government’s interest in pursuing antitrust investigations and new legislation. MacVey points to the new American Innovation and Online Choice Act, proposed by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), which “Focuses on the power of Big Tech, such as Amazon, Google, Apple, Meta/Facebook, [and] on the perception that important markets have become much more concentrated in recent decades due to lax antitrust enforcement.” Additionally, the Senate Antitrust Subcommittee will hold a hearing on the concert ticketing business. “It will be interesting to watch,” concluded MacVey.
The full article is available online.
