Senators from both sides of the aisle during a Tuesday hearing accused Ticketmaster parent Live Nation Entertainment of using monopoly power to dominate the ticketing and live events industry, as lawmakers grilled a top company executive who fiercely denied the assertion. "This whole concert ticket system is a mess - it's a monopolistic mess," said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), calling Live Nation an "800 pound gorilla" that has "clear dominance, monopolistic control." Over nearly three hours, Senate Judiciary Committee members questioned industry experts and executives - including Joe Berchtold, president and chief financial officer of Live Nation - about whether a 2010 merger between Live Nation and Ticketmaster allowed the company to unfairly grow its market share, and whether that dominance is hurting artists and consumers. The hearing comes a few months after the issue took center stage during a mad rush for Taylor Swift tickets late last year that resulted in scores of … [Read more...] about Senators on both sides accuse Ticketmaster of misusing its power