The Competition Commission (CC) is to investigate the planned merger between Ticketmaster and Live Nation after the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) raised concerns over the proposals.

One of Europe's largest ticketing agencies, CTS Eventim, was due to replace US-based Ticketmaster as Live Nation's principal ticketing agency in January, but the planned merger may now force CTS Eventim to withdraw from the UK market instead. The CC is expected to report by 24 November to see whether the merger will threaten competition in the promotion of live music events by limiting consumers' access to rival ticketing agencies.

Ali Nikpay, OFT senior director, said: "Live music is a fast growing industry, currently worth around £1.9bn a year. We expected CTS's entry, through its contract with Live Nation, to be an important new competitive dynamic in the UK ticketing market. "The proposed merger risks undermining this by potentially prompting the exit of what would likely have been a third large player from the UK, or at least significantly stunting its effectiveness."