Live Nation has created a “climate of fear” in the UK live music industry, a House of Commons committee has concluded, calling on the country’s competition regulator to launch a full market investigation before the end of 2026.
The Business and Trade Committee published a report on Sunday (May 24) concluding that the world’s largest live entertainment company meets the threshold for market dominance across multiple areas of the UK live music supply chain.
The Committee concluded that for Live Nation – and “possibly wider in the live music industry” – there are concerns against all three of the CMA‘s factors for determining market dominance.
The Committee issued a call for written evidence in October 2025, which elicited 45 submissions – with a “significant proportion” requesting to submit anonymously or confidentially for fear of reprisal.
“This in itself raises concerns about Live Nation‘s dominant and controlling market position,” the report stated.
In 2024, the UK live music industry generated GBP £6.68 billion (USD $8.53 billion at the average exchange rate for 2024) in consumer spending and employed more than 234,000 people, according to figures cited in the report from industry body LIVE.
In primary ticketing, the Committee found that Live Nation directly controlled 58% of the 23.1 million tickets on sale in 2025 – rising to 66% when sales controlled by its affiliate companies are included.
Ticketmaster initially refused to attend a Committee evidence session in February 2025, citing the then-ongoing CMA investigation. The company later accepted the invitation.
Andrew Parsons, Managing Director and Regional Vice President of Ticketmaster UK and Ireland, denied at that session that Live Nation held a dominant position. “That is not something I recognize,” he said. “It is an incredibly competitive market within the UK.”
Live Nation Executive President Phil Bowdery appeared before the Committee in June 2025 and offered a different account. “We are vertically integrated, as are most of our competitors,” he said.
When pressed on the company’s market share in arenas and stadia, Bowdery said: “We are very good at what we do. Therefore, there is interest from the major artists to be with Live Nation.”
But the Committee’s report suggested “an alternative explanation for Live Nation‘s dominant position,” citing evidence across multiple areas of the live music supply chain.
Dean James, co-founder of MAMA Group – one of the UK’s largest live music and artist management groups prior to its sale in 2010 – said of Live Nation: “If you don’t play their venues, you don’t play their festivals.”
Among the concerns raised: independent promoters alleged that Live Nation-controlled venues favor in-house promotion and integrated ticketing; long-term agreements with restrictive exclusivity terms make access to its venues contingent on participation in its festivals – or vice versa; and in secondary ticketing, evidence indicated the restriction of resale activity to Ticketmaster‘s own platform.
The report found that Live Nation‘s vertical integration allows it to use profits from higher-margin segments – such as ticketing – to subsidize promotion, enabling it to offer contracts to top artists that smaller competitors cannot match.
Since 2010, Live Nation has acquired interests in previously independent businesses, including Cuffe & Taylor, Boomtown festival and DF Concerts – Scotland’s largest regional promoter. In 2025, Swansea failed to secure any major tours for the first time, with shows instead routed through Bristol and Cardiff, where Live Nation owns and promotes venues.
Rt Hon Liam Byrne MP, Chair of the Committee, said: “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.
“What particularly alarmed the Committee was not just the scale of Live Nation‘s market position across promotion, venues and ticketing, but the climate of fear we encountered during this inquiry.”
Rt Hon Liam Byrne MP, British MP
“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.
“What particularly alarmed the Committee was not just the scale of Live Nation‘s market position across promotion, venues and ticketing, but the climate of fear we encountered during this inquiry.
“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.
“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.”
The report comes amid escalating regulatory pressure on Live Nation across multiple jurisdictions.
In the US, a federal jury in April found that Live Nation and Ticketmaster had illegally monopolized the US ticketing market – a landmark verdict following a six-week trial brought by more than 30 states after the US Department of Justice reached a separate settlement with the company in March.
The Committee’s inquiry follows a CMA investigation into Ticketmaster‘s handling of the Oasis reunion tour ticket sale in 2024, which found the company had misled consumers and used unclear ticketing practices. The CMA subsequently threatened Ticketmaster with legal action in July 2025.
The report noted that there has been no significant CMA investigation of the UK’s live music sector since the then Competition Commission’s investigation into the merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster in 2010.
In evidence to the Committee in June 2025, Emma Cochrane, Acting Executive Director of Consumer Protection at the CMA, said the regulator was considering a market investigation “which would be on a timeframe of 18 to 24 months” and would “open up the possibility of making orders, including breaking up a business.”
The Committee also turned its attention to the grassroots music sector. The report noted that Live Nation now operates The Great Escape, one of the UK’s main festivals for rising talent, bringing artists into its ecosystem early and “often restricting” them from playing non-Live Nation events.
A government-endorsed industry levy on arena and stadium tickets, designed to support grassroots venues, has seen limited uptake. As of March 2026, only 30% of tickets sold for shows that year had supported the voluntary contribution – a failure “widely attributed” to Live Nation not implementing the levy.
Mark Davyd, CEO of the Music Venue Trust, was quoted in the report as saying: “It will be a direct consequence of the overwhelmingly dominant force in the arena and stadium market deciding not to deliver a voluntary levy.
“It will be a direct consequence of the overwhelmingly dominant force in the arena and stadium market deciding not to deliver a voluntary levy.”
Mark Davyd, Music Venue Trust
“That’s your choice, Live Nation, and everyone in the industry hopes you make the right one.”
Companies such as SJM, Kilimanjaro and AEG have adopted the levy “much more robustly.” The government has said it is “prepared to explore legislative options” if the industry does not act.
John Rostron, CEO of the Association of Independent Festivals (AIF), told MBW in a statement: “AIF welcomes the committee’s report and fully supports the recommendations in particular the call for the CMA to move speedily to conduct a priority investigation into the live music industry.”
“AIF welcomes the committee’s report and fully supports the recommendations in particular the call for the CMA to move speedily to conduct a priority investigation into the live music industry.”
John Rostron, Association of Independent Festivals
A Live Nation UK spokesperson said, as per The Independent: “This report misrepresents the UK live music industry by relying on inaccurate data and unsupported conclusions. Live Nation competes every day for tours, venues and artists in a highly competitive market.
“We will engage constructively with any process that benefits artists, fans and the wider industry, but debate about the sector must be based on evidence, not allegation and hearsay.”
“This report misrepresents the UK live music industry by relying on inaccurate data and unsupported conclusions. Live Nation competes every day for tours, venues and artists in a highly competitive market.”
Live Nation UK (via The Independent)
A CMA spokesperson said the authority is “giving active and careful consideration to undertaking markets work in this area.”
A UK government spokesperson said vendors are “required by law to be transparent” about ticket prices, adding that the CMA‘s powers have been strengthened.Music Business Worldwide
