Press Release 25/2024
November 21, 2024

The Portuguese Competition Authority (AdC) has decided not to oppose the merger involving the acquisition by Live Nation Entertainment Inc. (LNE) of an indirect controlling interest in Ritmos & Blues Produções, Lda. (R&B) and Arena Atlântico – Gestão de Recintos Multiusos, S.A. (Arena Atlântico), along with their subsidiaries.
This decision was made possible after LNE proposed commitments to address the competition concerns identified by the AdC during its investigation.

The Companies Involved

LNE is a US-based company active in the live music entertainment industry and the parent company of the Live Nation Entertainment Group. Outside Portugal, LNE operates across various levels of the live events value chain, including event promotion, ownership and management of live entertainment venues, ticketing services, and artist management services.
In Portugal, Live Nation promotes the Rock in Rio Lisboa festival through its subsidiary Better World Comunicação, Publicidade e Entretenimento S.A. It also holds a stake in the Rolling Loud festival.
R&B is a Portuguese company headquartered in Lisbon, primarily involved in promoting live events in Portugal, such as music concerts, family shows, and other live entertainment events.
Arena Atlântico is a Portuguese entity based in Lisbon that manages and operates the MEO Arena in Lisbon.
Arena Atlântico is also a controlling shareholder of Blueticket, alongside Altice Europe N.V. (“Altice”), a French multinational telecommunications company that holds its stake through its Portuguese subsidiary, MEO – Serviços de Comunicação e Multimédia, S.A. (“MEO Portugal”).
Blueticket provides ticketing services, including the sale, distribution, and marketing of tickets for live events (e.g., sports, concerts) primarily through its website, as well as on-site at venues and through a retail partner network (e.g., MEO stores, Fnac, Worten, Wook, and El Corte Inglés, among others).

Competition Concerns

The decision followed an in-depth investigation by the AdC, which identified that the merger could give rise to significant impediments to effective competition in the national market or in a substantial part thereof, resulting from restrictions, total or partial, on access to Altice Arena by competitors in the live event promotion market and in the ticketing services market.
Following the decision to conduct an in-depth investigation, LNE proposed remedies to address the competition concerns identified by the AdC. A market test involving the 10 largest MEO Arena clients was conducted.
MEO Arena clients raised the following concerns:

1. access by LNE to competitors' commercially sensitive information when using Arena Atlântico, particularly ticket sales data from third-party promoters;
2. LNE's incentives to implement foreclosure strategies, such as limiting access to the MEO Arena via booking policies or margin compression through access pricing; and
3. LNE’s potential strategies to restrict artists' access to competitors.

Regarding the concern over artists’ access, the AdC considered that, even without the merger, LNE could directly enter the national market as an event promoter. Its ability to do so with its own artists and international tours is consistent with its vertically integrated business model and is not a specific issue arising from the merger.

The Commitments Proposed by LNE

To address the remaining concerns, the latest version of the commitments presented by LNE strengthens the conditions that guarantee an effective freedom of choice of the ticketing service provider by the promoter that uses MEO Arena.
The commitments also reinforce the conditions ensuring the adoption of an open, transparent, and non-discriminatory commercial policy which translates, among other things, in an immediate reduction in access prices, a price freeze for the next five years, and a guarantee that any future price changes (beyond five years) will require prior approval by the Monitoring Trustee.
Additionally, the commitments strengthen the conditions to prevent LNE from having access to commercially sensitive information pertaining to competing promoters that use MEO Arena. Monitoring conditions have also been bolstered through the appointment of a new Monitoring Trustee and of an Independent Information Manager, acting under direct supervision of the Monitoring Trustee, to manage and oversee access to LNE’s competitors' commercially sensitive information.

Main highlights of the Commitments’ Proposal

The commitments presented by LNE replace the remedies in place since March 2013 under case Ccent/2012/38:

• ensure fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) access to the MEO Arena for all promoters;
• implement a price freeze and safeguards to maintain FRAND pricing in the future;
• limit the use of MEO Arena by LNE and R&B to ensure access for other producers;
• simplify MEO Arena’s booking policy;
• increase Arena Atlântico’s reporting obligations to facilitate monitoring of margin squeeze prevention;
• enhance third-party promoters' freedom to select their preferred ticketing service provider;
• introduce stricter measures to protect third-party promoters’ and ticketing operators’ commercially sensitive information; and
• simplify the procedure for complaints to be submitted.

With these commitments, further streamlined in the version presented on October 21, 2024, LNE clearly acknowledged that it cannot impose any fees, charges, or commissions on Ticketing Operators and on Third-Party Promoters, except those specified in the MEO Arena Pricing Policy Document, which is part of the Remedies.
The AdC concluded that the new set of commitments proposed by LNE are appropriate, sufficient, proportionate, and enforceable to address the competition concerns arising from the merger as notified.