Business As Usual? Repercussions Of Live Nation Trial In Europe & The UK

This industry has never been more global. In the UK and Europe in particular, the concert business is largely streamlined with its U.S. counterpart when it comes to the touring side of things. But a big difference remains in ticketing. 

The UK and Europe are allocation markets, meaning whoever holds the rights to the ticket can choose the ticketing agents they want to work with. There are no venue exclusives or other deals that could compel a venue or promoter to work with one ticketing company exclusively (there are other ways, but first things first).

The allocation model is one reason it’s difficult to talk about potential repercussions the verdict from the antitrust trial against Live Nation in the U.S. may have on Europe and the UK.

Live Nation said as much in its only official statement on the matter, obtained by Pollstar, which says, “This case is specific to the U.S., covering Live Nation amphitheatres and Ticketmaster U.S. only. It is business as usual for all other countries globally.”

An allocation-based ticketing model ensures more competition from the outset than an exclusivity-based model, which is why some of the concerns shared by the prosecution in the U.S. are already mitigated in Europe and the UK. In both markets, multiple primary ticketing companies compete for inventory.

What is more, when looking at mainland Europe at least, Ticketmaster isn’t the dominant player. It’s CTS Eventim. While it is hard to come by exact figures, estimates say Eventim has more than 60% market share in most countries it operates in. 

Live Nation is still the dominant promoter across both the UK and Europe, and just because Ticketmaster’s market share is less than it is in the U.S., it doesn’t mean it has no power overseas – allocation model or not.

UPDATE, April 29, 2026, 4.44 a.m. PST: In the UK, Ticketmaster is widely quoted by news outlets to be the market leader. The country’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) says a monopoly begins at 25% market share, and market dominance at more than 40% market share. It’s not possible to say where Ticketmaster falls on this spectrum, because, by its own admission, there are no reliable estimates of market share in this industry.

A 60% market share figure used by Pollstar here in a previous version of this article, quoted from a Guardian report, wasn’t “at all accurate,” as Pollstar was told by a Ticketmaster UK rep since. It was therefore erroneous to call Ticketmaster “the dominant player in the UK by far,” as this article had previously done.

Ticketmaster MD Andrew Parsons said as much in a June 24, 2025, parliamentary evidence session on “Pricing, competition and consumer protection” in London. When member of parliament Charlie Maynard quoted the same Guardian figure of 60%, Parsons said that while he “could not confirm or deny that number,” it definitely wasn’t accurate. He explained that the UK ticketing industry was an “incredibly competitive” market, especially at the arena level, “and we have only a small piece of it.”

Yet, with Live Nation and affiliated promoters dominating the concert and festival market, there’s still many instances where venues and promoters feel like they have no choice but to work with Ticketmaster.

For one, Ticketmaster, as a dominant player, controls most of the fan data and is therefore in the best position to market the shows it puts on sale. As George Akins, MD of DHP Family, one of the UK’s last truly independent live businesses, explains, the marketing reach alone may be a reason to allocate tickets to Ticketmaster. Even a venue owned by the competition may be forced to allocate more inventory to Ticketmaster than it would care for, for example, if a show is selling slowly and it’s clear the remaining tickets would sell faster through Ticketmaster, which has built a brand awareness among consumers unlike any other ticketing outlet. “Most people only know Ticketmaster. They’re unaware that there are multiple ticket outlets, just like they’re unaware that just because Ticketmaster says ‘sold out’, that doesn’t mean there are no more tickets available; they may just be with another agent,” Akins explains.

Last but not least, in Akins’ experience, Live Nation may insist that a venue allocate all tickets to Ticketmaster in order to get a hot show. He says, “There are great promoters working at Live Nation, and Live Nation has done wonderful things for the business, too. But it’s just a fact that its dominance creates an uneven playing field. And we’re way too far down that road for the situation to change. Plus, it’s not just Live Nation. There’s AEG, Eventim, DEAG – it’s four, five companies operating globally that are all contributing to these dynamics.”

He didn’t explicitly say it, but it follows from Akins’ analysis that a breakup of Live Nation and Ticketmaster would be the only remedy that could achieve anything meaningful in terms of leveling the playing field again.

And while he understands that ticket prices had to go up in the current economy, where every aspect of touring has gotten more expensive, he also points to artists like The Cure and others, who’ve managed to keep prices affordable despite the inflationary economy. 

Which brings up another important factor in this whole discussion: the artist and their power to influence the ticket price. One way would be to scale down production, which many artists are reluctant to do. Especially in today’s concert economy, where major arenas and stadiums have become the venue of choice for those artists with a large enough fan base. Those shows wouldn’t work if there was just an artist sitting in a spotlight with a guitar – at least no one has been bold enough to try it yet. 

What exacerbates this dynamic is the fact that most mainstream music consumers aren’t die-hard music lovers who visit dozens of shows every year, which includes performances by new and unknown acts starting out on the grassroots circuit. Most people may see one or two shows a year, and prefer to have the type of comfortable, all-inclusive blockbuster experience only a stadium or major arena show promises. Those shows come at a price, not just for the fan, but the artist and promoter, as well, and they’re only getting more expensive. And since every promoter, including Live Nation, uses the profits from the big shows to develop new talent through the smaller capacities, it follows that, as the margins from major shows shrink, there’s less money available to fund up-and-coming talent. As the focus increasingly shifts to the money-makers, it becomes a problem.

“Arena and stadium concerts, today, have largely become a pastime for the middle class,” says Akins, who is not too optimistic that the legal proceedings in the U.S. will produce any meaningful results, seeing that a breakup of Live Nation and Ticketmaster is unlikely, according to most experts, who have commented on the matter. 

The jury verdict still has the power to sway decision makers and competition authorities around the world, because it’s not like the UK and Europe are unaware of Live Nation’s and Ticketmaster’s market power.

The UK’s CMA has investigated Ticketmaster in the past, following the Oasis “Live ’25” onsale in August of 2024. The investigation closed on Sept. 25, 2025, stating that Ticketmaster neither engaged in dynamic pricing nor unfair commercial practices. It did, however, find that the tiered ticket price system should have been communicated to fans more transparently.

Following the investigation, Ticketmaster made changes to ensure fans would have a better purchasing experience going forward, for instance, removing the “Platinum” designation for tickets that didn’t offer an advantage over regular ones. The company made those changes voluntarily, without any admission of wrongdoing or liability.

The independent community in the UK has been calling on policymakers to look at Live Nation’s dominance in the country for at least a decade. The Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) regularly publishes stats on market shares in the festival landscape to make its point. It renewed its call on the UK government to investigate Live Nation after the U.S. verdict. “The verdict represents one of the most consequential antitrust rulings against a major player in the live entertainment industry,” AIF wrote in a statement sent out to the press, which continues, “Here in the UK, AIF has been pushing for scrutiny. We have submitted evidence, raised concerns, and called for a proper investigation into market dominance and its effect on artists, festivals, promoters, and audiences.” 

AIF’s work, coupled with similar concerns voiced across the UK’s independent sector, helped prompt a new inquiry by the UK’s Business and Trade Select Committee, exploring issues impacting competition and market functioning within the UK’s live music industry. The committee said it would take into account findings from two oral evidence sessions held Feb. 4, and June 24, 2025, at the UK Parliament, and written evidence gathered until Jan. 23, 2026.

Since the deadline for the submission of written evidence ended in January, there hasn’t been an update from the committee, which AIF pointed out, stating, “we call on the Select committee to move forward with an inquiry, and we call on the Competition and Markets Authority to act and conduct a full investigation into Live Nation.”

The nature of politics is such that politicians usually only get involved once they sense it’s a popular enough topic with the potential of swaying voters one way or the other. Ticketing has become such a topic. The public will always blame the guy who took the money, which, to them, is the ticketing company. But there’s more that goes into the final ticket price shown on screen than ticketing execs conspiring to milk the public for every last penny. It does happen, though, which is one of the most shocking revelations from the U.S. antitrust trial, and the part that warrants all the scrutiny a regulator is capable of.

UPDATE: This article was updated on Wednesday, April 29, 2026, at 4.44 a.m. PST to reflect Ticketmaster UK’s objection to a 60% market share figure quoted from a Guardian article. A Ticketmaster UK rep pointed out that there were no reliable estimates of market share in this industry, and that the Guardian’s figure was “not at all accurate.” A quote from Ticketmaster UK MD Andrew Parsons, made at a 2025 parliamentary evidence session, was added to emphasize this point.