Music Ally

The UK Competition Commission has given permission for the so-called  ”merger of equals” between Ticketmaster and Live Nation, despite initial expectations that the merger would be opposed.

Earlier this month Live Nation published a document detailing what it described as “key legal flaws” in the Competition Commission’s provisional ruling, which was made in October.  In a curious twist on the usual bullish attitude of corporate giants, both Ticketmaster and Live Nation found themselves explaining why they believe their market powers and technological capabilities are  lower than the Competition Commission had claimed.

The Competition Commission has now reversed its finding that competition will be harmed, particularly in terms of UK market entry for German ticket provider CTS Eventim, with Commission inquiry group chairman Christopher Clarke stating that “we concluded it was unlikely that the merged entity would harm other ticketing agencies, promoters or venues”.

Music Ally is currently running a week-long special looking into the various competitors in the ticketing space, particularly the new generation of online self-service providers including Eventbrite. To read an interview with Stormcrowd CEO and former Ticketmaster executive Steve Machin view today’s piece or for Matt McNeill from eTickets to view yesterday’s. A detailed feature looking at the world of ticketing is published in last week’s Music Ally PDF Report – sign up for a two week free trial.

Tags: competition commission, eventim, Live Nation, live nation ticketmaster merger, merger, merger of equals, online ticketing, ticket fees, ticketing, Ticketmaster

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009 at 1:05 pm and is filed under Digital Music News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.