Seeking to support embattled American consumers and workers against concentrated corporate power, President Joe Biden's administration has taken a record number of antitrust actions to prevent a few large companies from dominating their respective markets. That stands in stark contrast to his 2024 opponent, former President Donald Trump, who has sought to portray himself as an advocate for regular people but who, in office, used anti-monopoly rhetoric as cover for personal and political vendettas — while letting favored corporations off the hook.
In May, Biden’s Department of Justice sued Live Nation, the high-on-the-hog group behind Ticketmaster and its allegedly deceptive sales practices, accusing the company of relying on "unlawful, anticompetitive conduct to exercise its monopolistic control over the live events industry." The move by the Biden administration is the latest in an unprecedented string of federal lawsuits against companies, blocking of mergers and opening of antitrust probes, all spearheaded by Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan and DOJ's antitrust chief Jonathan Kanter.
This enforcement of antitrust policy, framed by a set of guidelines released in late 2023, is not just a matter of abstract economics or defying the rich and powerful on principle — it affects the livelihoods of average Americans by protecting them from companies that have means and incentive to maximize profit at consumers' expense.
Related
Trump, despite his rhetorical attacks on "elites," seems to operate on a different set of principles, which in office boiled down to taking revenge against companies that he perceived to have wronged him, such as CNN. The Trump administration also used the guise of enforcing antitrust laws to go after car makers who agreed to California's strict emission standards; this was paired with a permissive attitude towards companies Trump favored and half measures that appeared designed to build trust-busting credibility without having meaningful impact.
Consider Ticketmaster: The Trump administration administration settled with the company after it violated the agreement made when it merged with Live Nation, seeking to prevent the company from using its power to retaliate against venues that don't use its services, but did little to address its alleged price gouging. Unlike Biden’s regulators, Trump's declined to press further action even after Ticketmaster acquired Rival, a competitor, further consolidating its grip on live entertainment.
“Antitrust enforcement during the Biden administration has been extremely vigorous, far more than the Trump administration"
“Antitrust enforcement during the Biden administration has been extremely vigorous, far more than the Trump administration,” Steven Salop, a professor of economics and law at the Georgetown University Law Center, told Salon.
In the case of Ticketmaster, which swallowed up seven competitors between 1985 and 1991 and now controls paid concert access across the country, concertgoers have been forced by lack of alternatives to purchase tickets online and accept opaque, hidden fees that could double the price of the ticket. Although Live Nation acquired Ticketmaster 14 years ago, its........