Live Nation Entertainment more than doubled its federal lobbying spending to $2.4 million in 2023 from $1.1 million in 2022 as it navigated legislative and regulatory efforts to break up its power in the live entertainment and ticketing industry.

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A June report by the American Economic Liberties Project (AELP), an anti-monopoly nonprofit, found that Live Nation operates 64 percent of the top venues in the country, 78 percent of which use Ticketmaster for ticketing services.

During a discussion with the AELP last Tuesday, Klobuchar described Live Nation and Ticketmaster’s dominance in ticketing, venues and talent promotion as “one big triple monopoly” and called on Congress to pass “targeted legislative solutions” to help rival ticketing companies compete in the marketplace.

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“What we’re seeing is Live Nation starting to create an ecosystem just like we’ve seen with a lot of the big tech companies using its power in one area to foreclose competition in another area,” said Kathleen Bradish, acting president at the American Antitrust Institute and former assistant chief and international counsel in the antitrust division of the Justice Department, during a discussion with AELP last Tuesday.

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