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> That's not what rent-seeking means.

> They’re just charging exorbitant fees to a customer base with no alternatives.

The term for that is “monopoly rent”, it is a subtype of economic rents (which are distinct from, but overlap, “rents” of goods or services for a finite time as distinct from sales.)

Actions taken in pursuit of economic rents are called “rent-seeking”.




Rent-seeking is profiting from position without adding value.

Rent-seeking is not merely pricing your product as high as the market will bear.

Ticketmaster adds value. They just charge exorbitant fees.

...

Edit: But OK, you can argue that their full vertical integration (ticketing-venue-artist management) is maximizing their position for the furtherance of increasing their fees, and that would be rent-seeking. I don't see it that way, but I won't argue against interpreting them as a coercive monopolist, which is close enough.


> Rent-seeking is profiting from position without adding value.

No, that's “economic rent”, of which monopoly rent is an extensively-studied subtype. (Monopoly is position.)

Rent-seeking is pursuing economic, including monopoly, rents.




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