Treatmaster, Ticketmaster, can be too big to care, says FTC chair

The Chair of the Federal Trade Commission, Lina Khan, said on Tuesday that giant companies like Ticketmaster, which is facing a tsunami of criticism for selling tickets to a 2023 Taylor Swift tour, can become too big to care. Khan said at the Wall Street Journal's CEO Council Summit that it was the Justice Department that approved the merger of Ticketmaster and Live Nation in 2010 and referenced a report that the department had a probe under way.

She said that giant firms may feel like they don't need to invest in innovation because they're not facing tough competition when firms become big they can become too big to care.

She said that the Justice Department continues to look at this and she is sure that it's top of mind for them, given all the incoming they're getting.

There is going to be a congressional hearing this month about the debacle in November when Ticketmaster put tickets on sale for Taylor Swift's Eras tour, and some fans struggled for hours on the ticket sale website.

Ticketmaster has blamed issues with presale ticketing for the tour, the pop superstar's first in five years, on unprecedented demand and an effort to keep out bots run by ticket scalpers.

Swift said it was excruciating to watch fans struggle to secure tickets and that she had been assured that Ticketmaster could handle large demand.

Neither Ticketmaster nor the Justice Department responded immediately to requests for comment.

Khan said that the FTC was not investigating the FTX, whose collapse sparked fears of contagion and prompted calls for more regulation of the digital currency.