The U.K.’s Parliamentary trade committee has urged the Competition and Markets Authority to investigate the live music industry as a matter of urgency, saying that Live Nation operates in a “climate of fear.” The House of Commons Business and Trade Committee, a cross-party group made of MPs from both sides of the aisle, launched an inquiry into the U.K.’s live music industry market last December. After initially refusing to attend, Ticketmaster appeared before the committee last February before returning in June with parent company Live Nation. Popular on Variety Live Nation’s executive president Phil Bowdery told the committee, “We are very good at what we do. Therefore, there is interest from the major artists to be with Live Nation,” by way of explaining the company’s large market share in live music venues, including arenas. However in a new report, the committee says it was left with “serious concerns” about the state of competition in the U.K. live music industry and suggest that Live Nation’s dominant market position may have created a “climate of fear.” It was particularly alarmed by the large proportion of anonymous or confidential responses it received to its call for written evidence “due to fear of reprisal primarily from Live Nation.” The report notes that of the 23.1 million tickets sold in 2025, Live Nation directly controlled 58% of them. If counting sales controlled by its affiliate companies, that number rose to 66%. Live Nation also dominates the secondary ticket market by restricting sales to Ticketmaster’s resale platform. Among the concerns raised in the evidence were the scale and integrated nature of Live Nation’s business model, which make it difficult for artists and managers to operate outside of its ecosystem, for example citing the lack of opportunities for independent promoters to access venues and for independent festivals and venues to access bigger artists. Other issues included Live Nation’s use of long-term agreements and exclusivity terms that require artists to participate in its festivals to access certain venues (or vice versa) and its venues favoring its in-house promotion businesses and integrated ticketing arrangements over independents. Last month a jury in a New York federal court found that Live Nation Entertainment and Ticketmaster illegally held monopoly power in the ticketing market. Live Nation has indicated it intends to appeal. “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,” said Liam Byrne, chair of the Commons Business and Trade Committee. “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.”