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Dateline: 9th October, 2009
CC to Block Live Nation/Ticketmaster Merger The Competition Commision's provisional ruling on the proposed merger between Live Nation and Ticketmaster is that it would lead to "a substantial lessening of competition in the UK market for the primary retailing of tickets for live music events". The preliminary report goes on to say, "We expected that the merger would lead to higher net prices from ticket retailers (eg due to lower rebates to promoters and venues) and/or lower service levels (to consumers and/or promoters and venue operators) and/or lower levels of innovation in the market than would otherwise be the case." The current situation is that Ticketmaster has between 40% and 50% of the live music ticket market in the UK, with See Tickets having about half that. None of the other companies in the market have more than a 5% share. German-based CTS has an agreement with Live Nation which, the Commission feels, would enable to the two work in partnership with each other, "which meant that CTS was likely to sell far more than the minimum volume of Live Nation tickets guaranteed under the agreement, and Live Nation had the incentive to encourage CTS’s growth in the UK market." The Commission belives that, without the proposed merger, "the market would have become more competitive and, over time, there would have been three large suppliers of primary ticketing services in the UK, namely Ticketmaster, See Tickets and CTS." The lessening of competition due to the merger, the Commission belivces, would the merger would "lead to higher net prices from ticket retailers (eg due to lower rebates to promoters and venues) and/or lower service levels (to consumers and/or promoters and venue operators) and/or lower levels of innovation in the market than would otherwise be the case." Both Live Nation and Ticketmaster are expected to contest the decision.
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