TOGETHER WITH

In today's email, we've got:

• an impending legal battle between two titans: Taylor Swift & Ticketmaster

• some serious jail time for fraudster Elizabeth Holmes

• a big, Christmassy rejection for Mariah Carey

EDITOR'S RAMBLE 🗣

I usually like to include something silly and lighthearted in my rambles (and there's certainly some of that in the rest of the newsletter), but this week I wanted to touch on something a little more serious and something that has a big impact in our profession; men's mental health in law.

LawCare (the mental wellbeing charity for the legal profession) has today released the findings of its all-male focus group to understand the workplace mental health needs of men in law.

To put it simply and briefly, their overarching conclusion was that there are still serious barriers to men seeking support in the workplace. Be it feeling the need to "appear strong" or not having many male role models in positions of responsibility in law, men typically don't feel able to raise concerns or talk about their mental health.

No matter who we are, what position we're in or who we work with, we should all feel able to talk to someone about what we're feeling.

No one always feels perfect, and you don't have to suffer in silence. So whether you're someone who struggles with this at work or in university, or you see someone else who you think is struggling, don't be afraid to talk.

You can find the full findings of LawCare's report here.

If you want to reach out to LawCare (they offer free, confidential, emotional support, peer support, and resources to those working in law in the UK) then you can find all of their details here.

- Connor

FEATURED REPORT 📰

🎤 Taylor takes on Ticketmaster

Credit: Giphy

What's going on here?

Following problems surrounding pre-sale tickets to Taylor Swift's latest tour, an inquiry is being opened against Ticketmaster by the US Justice Department.

The US Justice Department has opened an inquiry into Ticketmaster’s parent company and will look into whether Live Nation Entertainment has abused its power in the live music industry.

What does this mean?

Tickets for Taylor's newest tour, The Eras Tour 2023, went on pre-sale earlier last week. Pre-sale gives certain people the opportunity to buy tickets before they are released to the rest of the world.

People can typically get pre-sale tickets by pre-ordering an artist's newest album or by being part of some kind of priority group. The idea is that a certain amount of tickets are set aside for this priority group and, usually a few days after, tickets are released to everyone in a general sale.

However, when pre-sale tickets went live for Taylor's show, Ticketmaster then cancelled the general release because (as they put it) there was “extraordinarily high demands on ticketing systems and insufficient remaining ticket inventory to meet that demand.”

What's the big deal?

You might ask why this might result in legal action. Surely demand was simply higher than supply and Ticketmaster can't help that? However, there is an argument that Ticketmaster violated consumers’ rights and antitrust regulations (antitrust being, essentially, the US version of competition law).

Given Ticketmaster's dominance in the ticket-selling industry (they bought one of their biggest rivals, LiveNation, in 2010 which drew a lot of criticism), many are questioning whether Ticketmaster have been allowed to abuse their dominant position in the market.

The Tennessee Attorney General (the main legal advisor to the state) Jonathan Skrmetti said that Ticketmaster's decision to cancel sales "underscores the important need for accountability". He also said that, due to its size, Ticketmaster felt like it "didn't have to worry".

Presumably it is this line of thinking that has prompted the US Justice Department to look into the matter.

What will happen next?

Right now it's hard to say.

Although the US Justice Department is looking into the case, no formal lawsuit has been filed - at least not quite yet. That is a long and complicated process and a lawsuit could be a way down the line. That being said, the US Justice Department has seemed far more willing to bring such measures against big companies. In 2020, it brought a lawsuit against Google.

If it does decide to go down the lawsuit route (Dr Seuss watch out) it is likely that the US Justice Department will ask a judge to break Ticketmaster up into smaller companies so there would be more competition (meaning one powerful monopoly can't just do whatever it wants). To be successful, they would need to prove that Ticketmaster has a monopoly and is abusing that monopoly.

These types of cases take years to reach a conclusion, if such a case is actually started. No doubt Ticketmaster will throw everything it has at the court to defend itself.

Regardless of whether legal action will result from the pre-sale shambles, the damage to Ticketmaster's reputation has been done, and the general bad blood between the company and its users will inevitably affect Ticketmaster.

One thing is for certain from all of this, Ticketmaster won't just be able to shake it off! (I got so close to the end without putting any cheesy Taylor quotes in!)

TOGETHER WITH FLOWHUDDLE 🤝

A community supporting you to enter a career in law

Get bored and procrastinate when you're doing application-y bits? Me too. But it's a little bit easier with friends (or at the very least less boring).

FlowHuddle is a supportive online community of aspiring lawyers who are all in the same boat. Whether it be remote co-working sessions, in-person meet ups or just general tips and tricks, you can get it here.

If this sounds like something that could be a benefit to you, sign up below.*

*This is an affiliate link. Although you will be charged the same price, if you sign up through us, we will receive a small commission.

A BIT OF FUN 😄

World Cup Quiz

It's here and it's (hopefully 🤞) coming home! With one win down, I couldn't not pick something World Cup-related for this week's quiz.

Under the image of England football's waistcoated saviour (for men at least, our Lionesses are already champions!) are some questions to test your knowledge.

Credit: Giphy

Can you answer these World Cup questions?

1. Which country will go to Qatar to play in their first World Cup in 64 years?

2. Who is the youngest member in Gareth Southgate's England squad?

3. In which city was the last time we saw a crowd of over 100,000 in attendance for the final?

4. Which country has scored a record of 201 goals at the World Cup Finals?

Scroll down to the bottom to see the answers. 👀

IN OTHER NEWS 🗞

• 💸 The capital gains tax allowance is being cut: The recent Autumn Statement by the UK treasury has said it will cut the capital gains tax (CGT) annual exemption amount from £12,300 to £6,000 from April 2023. It will then decrease further to £3,000 from April 2024. CGT, in a nutshell, is the tax an individual pays on the profit that they make from acquiring an asset. For example, if you buy a house for £100k and sell it for £150k, you pay tax on the £50k increase. For more info on CGT, check out this useful summary. These new cuts will have a big impact on tax that individuals pay when selling high-value things that they own.

• 👮 Elizabeth Holmes is jailed for 11 years: Holmes, the founder of Theranos, is set to face 11 years in jail. Theranos was a health-tech start-up which claimed to be able to diagnose diseases by testing just a few drops of blood. These claims were completely false and Holmes has now been convicted for defrauding investors. At its height, Theranos was valued at £6.5bn. But, as this new jail sentence shows, crime doesn't pay!

• ⚖️ FTX is now preparing to sell of parts of its business: The crypto group FTX is now looking to either sell or reorganise the week after it announced it was entering administration (to remind yourself of the background, check out our summary of it in last week's newsletter in the "In Other News" section). The company believes it has over 1m creditors (that is a lot of people lining up for a piece of the insolvency cake!) and it hopes that by selling and reorganising, it can pay some of these back.

AROUND THE WEB 🌐

• 👀 Applications: If you're doing law firm research at the moment, this quick trick can make sure you never miss any news related to the firms you're interested in.

• 🎄 Christmassy: Mariah Carey has officially been denied the "Queen of Christmas" title. She had applied to get a trademark for the title, but the US trademark board rejected her, criticising Mariah for abusing the Christmas spirit in the name of "abject materialism". Maybe all she wants for Christmas now is an appeal...

• 🤖 Useful: If you use spreadsheets for budgeting, tracking stuff or anything else, here's a cool website which helps make Excel spreadsheeting easier.

Credit: Idin Sabahipour ; cbsnews; excelformulabot

Quiz Answers: 

1. Wales

2. Jude Bellingham (19 years old)

3. Mexico City (1986)

4. Brazil