Although Ticketmaster came to an agreement with New Jersey, the changes are expected to apply to all of the company’s sales across the country, Attorney General Anne Milgram announced on Monday.

 

The settlement comes as a result of the fact that Ticketmaster Entertainment Inc. faces inspection for a planned merger with the concert promotion giant Live Nation Inc. The merger is the main subject of congressional hearings that are due to take place on Tuesday in Washington.

 

For instance, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., explained that the merger would infringe antitrust rules by offering Ticketmaster an unwanted monopoly on the concert ticket market. However, Schumer said on Monday that he approved of the New Jersey agreement.

 

When he made the merger public earlier this month, Ticketmaster Chairman Barry Diller tried to dismiss claims that the deal would increase ticket prices, saying that the combined company would endure the economic crisis, sell a higher ticket number and develop public service.

 

The main matter that caused the New Jersey settlement took place when tickets for Bruce Springsteen’s May 21 and May 23 gigs at the Izod Center in East Rutherford, N.J., were made available on February 2. Numerous people who intended to purchase tickets were redirected from the main Ticketmaster site to TicketsNow, a subsidiary that permits people who own tickets to sell them at marked-up prices.