The Competition Commission ("CC") has again cleared the completed merger of Ticketmaster and Live Nation in the UK. The CC had initially cleared the merger in December last year but agreed to reconsider and make a new decision following a challenge to the Competition Appeal Tribunal by CTS Eventim ("Eventim") in January.
In its (new) final decision, the CC has again concluded that the merger would not result in a substantial lessening of competition, whether in the market for live music ticket retailing or live music promotion and venues. Both Ticketmaster and Live Nation are headquartered in the USA and operate in the UK live music and entertainment industry.
At issue was the position of Eventim (based in Germany), Ticketmaster's largest global competitor, and in particular whether the merger would make any difference to Eventim's prospects for success in the UK. Prior to the merger proposal, Live Nation had signed an agreement with Eventim, which allowed it to enter the UK for the first time. Under their agreement, Eventim provides Live Nation with ticketing software and services, and Eventim is allocated a proportion of Live Nation's tickets to sell to consumers. Both parties have stressed their commitment to honouring the agreement following the merger.
Having considered new submissions and held further hearings with both Live Nation and Eventim, the CC found that the merger will make little difference to Eventim's prospects for success in the UK. Although Live Nation's incentives have changed as a result of the merger, the scope for the merged entity to affect Eventim's expansion in the UK is limited.
As reported in issue 453 of Community Week, notwithstanding the appeal to the CAT, the investigation was already unusual in that the CC had originally proposed to block the merger at the provisional conclusions stage, with the regulator only reversing its position late in the day after the submission of significant new evidence (something that occurs only rarely).
The merger has also been cleared (subject to conditions) by the US Department of Justice.
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