[troutman]

http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/cyberla...FourInProgress

In practice, many have argued that Ticketmaster has gained monopoly power. In 1994, Pearl Jam went before Congress (http://www.fivehorizons.com/archive/...testimon.shtml) and asked the Department of Justice to bring an antitrust suit. Although the DOJ did not bring a suit against Ticketmaster in the 1990s, there is a pending antitrust suit against Ticketmaster brought by the band “String Cheese Incident” (SCI). A Rolling Stone article (http://www.rollingstone.com/news/sto...on=6.0.11.847) on the suit observes: “Antitrust expert John Solow, a University of Iowa economics professor, calls SCI Ticketing's suit ‘more than a plausible claim’”
Ticketmaster has capitalized on consumers’ desire for fast, easy, no-waiting-in line ticketing, and a look at the numbers suggests that they are often the only game in town. According to the analysis in the SCI lawsuit, Ticketmaster “prints up and distributes tickets exclusively for eighty-nine percent of the top fifty U.S. arenas, eighty-eight percent of the top amphitheaters and seventy percent of the top theaters.” "Ticketmaster Under Attack" by Steve Knopper (http://www.rollingstone.com/news/sto...on=6.0.11.847)
In building their monopoly, Ticketmaster defeated most of its competition. In Fall 1998, “there were three small players nipping at the heels of Ticketmaster Online: Advantix, ProTix and Tickets.com.” By 1999, the three competitors had merged into one: tickets.com. And by 2000, Ticketmaster had a lawsuit against tickets.com. (See Ticketmaster Corp. v. Tickets.Com, Inc. 2003 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6483).