Rep. Pat Ryan Blasts Live Nation Settlement, Urges Senate Action on TICKET Act in Keynote

U.S. Rep. Pat Ryan (D-NY) used a keynote appearance at the Coalition for Ticket Fairness conference in Florida to deliver a blunt message on ticketing policy, urging the Senate to move the stalled TICKET Act while sharply criticizing the Department of Justice’s settlement with Live Nation-Ticketmaster as an inadequate response to monopoly power in the live event business.

Ryan, who represents New York’s 18th Congressional District, framed his appearance not as that of a detached policymaker but as a lifelong fan of sports and live music, saying some of his earliest and most vivid memories are tied to live events and the tickets that got him through the door, souvenirs which filled an entire cork board in his bedroom by the time he departed for college at the United States Military Academy.

That personal framing set up the core of his message: that the fan experience has become increasingly expensive, confusing, and frustrating as power has concentrated in fewer hands.

Ryan told attendees that what was once a relatively simple experience — buying a ticket and going to a game or concert — now often feels stacked against ordinary consumers. He pointed to familiar frustrations including disappearing inventory, price jumps at checkout, and the broader sense that fans are getting squeezed at nearly every stage of the ticket-buying process.

“It just feels like all the forces of the world are essentially working against you or even conspiring against you,” Ryan said.

He argued that the underlying problem is straightforward: too much market power has been allowed to accumulate with too little accountability. In one of the sharper passages of his remarks, Ryan said the industry’s direction is being shaped by “billionaires in boardrooms” making decisions to maximize profit at the expense of fans and smaller businesses.

“I think it’s pretty straightforward. One of the most profitable mega-corporations in our country and in the world has accumulated more and more power, and it’s at the expense of [other] businesses and every fan just trying to enjoy these events.”

The congressman praised the House passage of the TICKET Act as one of the most significant recent steps toward restoring fairness and transparency in the marketplace. He singled out all-in pricing as one of the bill’s most important provisions, saying fans should be able to see the true cost of a ticket upfront instead of only learning the full price at checkout – codifying the FTC rules that went into effect in 2025 into federal law.

Ryan described that kind of transparency as basic but meaningful, particularly in a marketplace where consumers need a clear way to compare options before making a purchase. But while he credited the House with advancing the measure on a bipartisan basis, he was openly frustrated that the legislation remains stuck in the Senate.

Dismayed that that Senate leadership has not even allowed a vote on the bill despite broad its passing the house in overwhelming bipartisan fashion, and urged attendees to keep pressing senators to move it forward.

The toughest rhetoric of the appearance, however, was reserved for the DOJ’s recent settlement with Live Nation-Ticketmaster.

Calling it a “pathetic and cowardly settlement,” Ryan said the federal government had failed through half-measures in the proposed settlement rather than pursue the kind of structural remedy many critics had hoped for. He argued that fines in the hundreds of millions may sound substantial in isolation, but is far less meaningful when measured against the company’s overall scale and revenue.

“Just a slap on the wrist,” Ryan said, pointing out that the tentative sum amounts to an estimated four days of the company’s annual revenue. He argued that without real consequences, dominant companies have little reason to change their behavior.

Ryan also cast the settlement as part of a broader pattern in which policymakers too often side with powerful corporations instead of consumers and smaller businesses. He said both political parties have been guilty, in different ways, of allowing concentrated corporate power to grow unchecked, and suggested the Live Nation outcome reflected that larger failure.

Ryan tied that argument to the Congressional Monopoly Busters Caucus, which he founded and chairs, presenting ticketing as one example of a broader competition problem playing out across the economy. In his telling, the same concentration concerns that animate the caucus’s work are also at the heart of the Live Nation-Ticketmaster fight and the push for stronger consumer protections in ticketing.

At the same time, Ryan pointed to the refusal of a majority of state attorneys general to go along with the settlement as a sign that the matter is far from resolved. Ryan cited that pushback as one of the clearest reasons for critics of the deal to keep fighting, and those AGs now take over the case as it resumes without the DOJ in a federal courtroom in New York this week.

The keynote struck a tone likely to resonate with many in the room: broadly pro-market, but deeply skeptical of markets that are no longer functioning competitively. Ryan repeatedly returned to the idea that competition itself is the value worth protecting — not just regulation for its own sake, but rules and enforcement that keep dominant players from using their scale to tilt the field against fans and smaller operators.

That message also came through in the Q&A, when Ryan responded favorably to arguments that tickets should move in a freer and fairer marketplace, provided consumers are protected and the largest players are not allowed to abuse their position. He described competition as a fundamental American principle and suggested that restoring a healthier ticketing market requires both transparency reforms like the TICKET Act and a broader willingness to challenge monopoly power directly.

Ryan’s appearance gave the conference an opening keynote that was more confrontational than ceremonial. Rather than offering generic support for reform, he used the stage to align himself with a more aggressive critique of concentrated power in ticketing, to pressure the Senate over unfinished legislation, and to signal that Live Nation-Ticketmaster remains a potent political target even after the DOJ’s settlement.

For a conference centered on fairness, transparency, transferability, and the future of the resale marketplace, Ryan’s remarks amounted to a clear call for ticketing policy to remain part of the larger national debate over competition, consumer rights, and corporate power.

“We are better when we are actually able to compete,” Ryan said. “And that is a fundamental value of the United States of America.”