Nine months after Ticketmaster announced its proposed merger with Live Nation, the Justice Department's antitrust investigation seems to be entering the ninth inning, and the bases are loaded. Numerous consumer groups and 50 members of Congress have written in opposition to the merger.

Britain's antitrust cops have also come out against it. And it's becoming clear to the public that the merger will harm consumers and competition.

The reasons for the deal are quite transparent. Ticketmaster faced its first significant competitive threat when Live Nation announced earlier this year that it was entering the primary ticketing market. Most monopolists would like to quash any new threats to their dominance. But if they can't quash them, they might choose to buy them out - which is precisely why this merger is illegal.

The merger would combine a ticketing powerhouse with the country's dominant concert promoter. But the integration would go much further.

Ticketmaster controls roughly 80 percent of the ticketing business in the United States, but it also owns an artist-management business, Front Line Management, which contracts with roughly 200 artists. Live Nation owns or has exclusive deals with 139 venues, but it also manages about 150 artists. This merger would allow a Live Nation-Ticketmaster entity to determine the prices of access to venues, concert promotion, ticketing, and other services, permitting a single firm to dominate the market.

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