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Comment by jasonjayr | Hacker News Reader

I think the thing is (a) TM's take of the sales, (b) TM's owning the scalping/auction system post initial sale, (c) TM's exclusive hold on Box Offices at venues & (d) TM's propensity to drop fees as line-items with on-the-nose labels on the tickets they sell.

Basically, they've abused a monopoly position, and painted a target on their backs by trying to nickle and dime folks.

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Given the very nature of a monopoly position, I'd semantically argue that they are not abusing the position, but rather just using it. Much like a murderous criminal simply uses a garotte. That's what they're effectively for!

> I'd semantically argue that they are not abusing the position, but rather just using it. Much like a murderous criminal simply uses a garotte.

That argument has been tried in court, and doesn't work. That murderous criminal can still be punished, despite the fact the reason they killed someone was because it was part of their role as a criminal.

I think GP was basically arguing "monopolies are universally bad, whomever wields them" as a counter to a sense of "Ticketmaster is bad because it's abusing its monopoly position". You seem to have interpreted it as "this is what all monopolies do, so it's fine". No, this is what all monopolies do, and that's why monopolies must go.

Can't scalp in person but scalping online is totally legal. How is that TM's problem.

If people aren't scalping tickets on TM they will do it on the stubhub, seatgeek, vivid, etc.

The overall problem is arbitrage. These tickets are literally worth 1k and are selling for 100.

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