MPs have called on the UK Competition & Markets Authority to launch an investigation into the live music sector, as a matter of priority, after concluding that Live Nation and “other vertically integrated companies in the UK live music industry” are able “to behave outside of normal competition constraints”, in a way that is harming competition within the live music business.
The call for a “full market investigation” by the CMA follows an inquiry led by the UK Parliament’s Business And Trade Committee, which included a decidedly fractious session last June involving the rather unpunctual Phil Bowdery, a UK EVP at Live Nation, and Andrew Parsons, who heads up Ticketmaster in the UK. The committee published a report based on its work this weekend.
During the inquiry, Bowdery told MPs that his company enjoys a particularly large market share when it comes to arena and stadium shows in the UK simply because “we are very good at what we do”. However, the committee says, “evidence submitted to this inquiry suggests an alternative explanation for Live Nation's dominant position”.
45 written submissions were also made to the inquiry, “a significant proportion” of which were submitted anonymously or confidentially “for fear of reprisal”. That fact, the committee adds, “in itself triggers alarm about whether Live Nation has a dominant and controlling market position, and the climate of fear this may have created in the industry”.
The committee’s report follows the big antitrust legal case in the US, at the end of which a jury ruled that Live Nation and its Ticketmaster subsidiary - which together are dominant players in tour promotions, venue management and ticketing - operate an unlawful monopoly.
The live music giant’s US lawyers last week asked the judge to overturn that ruling, which - they say - is “legally indefensible”. The US states that pursued the antitrust litigation had insufficient evidence, they insist, and instead relied on “cherrypicked” data and claims designed to “inflame and distract” the jury.
A spokesperson for Live Nation UK has similar complaints about the Business And Trade Committee's report, which they say “misrepresents the UK live music industry by relying on inaccurate data and unsupported conclusions”.
Live Nation, the spokesperson continues, “competes every day for tours, venues and artists in a highly competitive market”. And while the company “will engage constructively with any process that benefits artists, fans and the wider industry”, any debate about the sector, they conclude, “must be based on evidence, not allegation and hearsay”.
However, others in the UK live sector have welcomed the committee’s intervention. John Rostron, CEO of the Association Of Independent Festivals, says his organisation “fully supports” the committee’s conclusions, and “in particular the call for the CMA to move speedily to conduct a priority investigation into the live music industry to improve market functioning and deliver growth in the UK”.
Among the specific concerns expressed by MPs about Live Nation are “the scale and integrated nature” of its business model, and how that makes it very difficult for artists and their managers “to operate independently of its ecosystem”. Meanwhile, “smaller and independent festivals” often “find access to talent increasingly challenging”, because of the dominance Live Nation exerts.
“Live Nation uses long-term agreements with restrictive exclusivity terms that make access to its venues contingent on participation in its festivals, or vice versa”, MPs write. And that obviously “incentivises artists to consolidate touring arrangements with the company” and therefore “reduces opportunities for competing promoters and events”.
“Independent promoters alleged that venues owned or controlled by Live Nation favour in-house promotion businesses and integrated ticketing arrangements impeding competition”, they add, while, in primary ticketing, Live Nation “directly controlled 58% of the 23.1 million tickets on sale in 2025, increasing to 66% if sales controlled by its affiliate companies are included”.
Therefore, “the committee concludes that a market investigation into the live music industry should be a priority of the CMA. Against a backdrop of the cost of living crisis, an investigation and consequential remedial measures have strong potential to improve market functioning and help deliver economic growth in the UK”.
And if that investigation uncovers and confirms anticompetitive practices, the committee adds, “the CMA should make use of its powers under the Digital Markets, Competition And Consumers Act 2024 to enforce remedies to improve competition and champion consumers”.
Committee Chair Liam Byrne MP adds, “Britain’s live music scene is one of our great national success stories, from grassroots venues nurturing new talent to world-class arena and stadium tours that attract global audiences. But the evidence we received during this inquiry points to deep concerns about whether competition in the industry is now working fairly for fans, artists, venues and independent promoters”.
Therefore “the CMA should now launch a full market investigation, before the end of this year, so there can be proper scrutiny of whether consumers, artists and independent businesses are getting a fair deal”.
Byrne also hones in on how many people submitted to his committee’s inquiry felt to need to do so confidentially. The “climate of fear we encountered” was “particularly alarming”, he says, adding “a striking number of submissions requested anonymity because people were worried about the consequences of speaking openly - that alone raises profound questions about the health of competition in the market”.
AIF CEO Rostron also references the “climate of fear” in his statement, adding “I want to pay thanks to the AIF board and our member festivals who stood together as we brought evidence forward to the committee last June. This bold move, and our supporting public statement, opened the door to this inquiry”.
“There is still a long way to go”, he goes on, and “now is the time for others to come forward. We will enjoy a long summer of independent, creative, vibrant music festivals whilst we continue to gather evidence, data and everything else needed for the work coming this autumn”.
Back in the US, Live Nation’s lawyers have urged the judge who oversaw the antitrust trial there to either overturn the jury’s ruling or order a new trial.
They argue that the jury’s decision was “contrary to the clear weight of the evidence”, claiming that jurors were unfairly swayed by a handful of “legally irrelevant” anecdotes, not least the entertaining tale about the Live Nation exec who - while discussing arbitrary price rises on ancillary services bought by ticket-buyers - bragged to a colleague that they were “robbing them blind baby”.