System Update with Glenn Greenwald Trump DOJ Gives Ticketmaster a Huge Gift to Avoid an Antitrust Trial -- with Matt Stoller
Mar 10, 2026
Matt Stoller, policy researcher and director of research at the American Economic Liberty Project, explains why the Ticketmaster antitrust showdown mattered. He breaks down consumer harms like fee inflation and scalping, legal theories under the Sherman Act, how Ticketmaster leverages venues and artists, and the political and judicial fallout from the controversial DOJ settlement.
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Ticketmaster Outcome Sends Marketwide Signal
- The Ticketmaster case is symbolic because its outcome signals to CEOs whether antitrust enforcement will be serious.
- If DOJ goes easy, other firms will copy Ticketmaster's coercive tying, fee practices, and raise prices across industries.
How Ticketmaster's Ecosystem Enables Price Gouging
- Ticketmaster's ecosystem lets it coerce venues and artists while obscuring true ticket costs with fees and dynamic pricing.
- That structure drives higher consumer prices, enables scalping, and reduces artist revenue, per Stoller.
Taylor Swift Sales Showed Ticketmaster Tech Failures
- The Taylor Swift ticketing fiasco illustrated Ticketmaster's poor tech and chaotic dynamic pricing that crashed systems and inflated costs.
- Stoller says rival technology was superior but venues couldn't use it because of Live Nation leverage.
