Ticketmaster is one of the world’s largest ticketing agents.

Ahead of publishing its final report, the UK’s Competition Commission (CC) has provisionally ruled that the proposed merger between Ticketmaster and Live Nation is anti-competitive.

Yesterday (8 October), the CC published its initial findings following an investigation into the proposed merger, and highlighted concerns over the fact that the new entity “could severely inhibit the entry of a major new competitor into the UK ticketing market”.

The competitor is named as CTS Eventim, a ticketing agent which already has agreements in place with Live Nation to help its entry into the UK.

Live Nation is one of the biggest concert promoters in the UK and manages several large UK concert venues, and has historically used Ticketmaster as its main ticketing agent.

The CC said it believes that if the proposed merger were to be approved then Live Nation may have the incentive to hamper CTS’s entry into the UK ticketing market, thus inhibiting its ability to be an effective competitor to Ticketmaster.

CC Deputy Chairman and Chairman of the Inquiry Group, Christopher Clarke commented: “The merger with Ticketmaster means that Live Nation will have every incentive to inhibit a significant potential rival from entering the UK markets.

“We also looked at how the combination of Live Nation, as a promoter and venue operator, with Ticketmaster might adversely affect ticketing agents other than CTS, promoters and venue operators. However, we concluded that it was unlikely that the merged company would have both the ability and incentive to harm them significantly.”

In a joint statement from the central parties on the Ticketmaster website, it says both will continue to cooperate as fully as possible with the ongoing investigation and they respect the decision so far.

However, the two companies look unlikely to back out of what they believe is the best way forward especially given the “challenges of the music industry.”

“We believe this merger will build a more efficient and effective company moving forward, and that working together we will be able to help achieve needed change that will strengthen a flagging music industry.”

As Ticketmaster and Live Nation are both headquartered in the US, the US competition authorities are also investigating the proposed link-up.

The CC is still inviting interested parties to register their comments on the proposed merger until 22 October, before its final report is due on 24 November 2009.