Live Nation Retains Pukkelpop Ownership, Founder Regains Control After Belgian Probe Ends

Live Nation keeps Pukkelpop but won’t run it for at least 10 years, as Belgium closes its competition probe

September 16, 2026 By Mandy Dalugdug

Live Nation will keep formal ownership of Pukkelpop , but it will not run the Belgian festival.

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The Belgian Competition Authority (BCA) closed its investigation into Live Nation ‘s takeover of Pukkelpop on Friday ( September 11 ), after accepting binding commitments from the company.

Under those commitments, the running of the festival, along with every asset attached to it, passes to an organization controlled by Pukkelpop founder and CEO Chokri Mahassine .

The commitments run for 10 years and can be extended by a further five years “if warranted in light of the applicable market circumstances,” the BCA said.

Those exclusive operating rights may also be passed on to a third party, though Mahassine will keep them for at least the next three years, Flemish public broadcaster VRT reported. Any successor would have to remain independent of Live Nation .

A monitoring trustee will check that the terms are being kept, according to the BCA .

The regulator said the festival’s operator “will have full independent control over all artistic, commercial and other decisions relating to the organization of the festival (including choice of artists/booking agents, programming, pricing of tickets and services, suppliers, staff, venue, dates, duration, capacity, staging, management, etc.), without prejudice to the possibility of procuring standalone services from Live Nation at market terms and on a non-exclusive basis.”

“Today’s decision preserves diversity and independence within the Belgian festival scene by allowing Pukkelpop to continue operating as a distinct festival with its own artistic identity and organizational autonomy,” said Damien Gérard , Prosecutor General at the BCA .

“The BCA is grateful for the many contributions to its investigation by a broad variety of industry participants and remains at their disposal in the future.”

The BCA opened the investigation on November 12, 2025 , on the instruction of Belgium’s Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister David Clarinval .

The takeover sat below the financial thresholds that would have triggered a merger filing in Belgium at the time, leaving the regulator without a merger case to open.

It instead ran an investigation under the rules against restrictions of competition, and in particular abuse of dominance – Article IV.2 of Belgium’s Code of Economic Law and Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.

Those rules can be applied to deals that fall outside merger control under the Towercast case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union .

The BCA examined what putting more large festivals under one owner would do to quality and pricing, citing Live Nation ‘s existing operation of Rock Werchter and Graspop Metal Meeting .

It also weighed whether Live Nation could use its artist booking business to limit rival festivals’ access to artists and to keep competing booking agents out of its own events.

The regulator looked, too, at what the takeover would mean for Belgium’s live entertainment value chain as a whole, given the range of Live Nation ‘s related activities.

A large number of industry participants filed submissions during the investigation, the BCA said.

In April this year, the BCA ‘s Prosecution and Investigation Service took the preliminary view that the takeover would make healthy competition impossible, and asked the authority’s decision-making Competition College to order Pukkelpop to operate independently until the case was resolved, VRT reported, citing Het Belang van Limburg .

Those interim measures would have covered ticket pricing, programming, and the festival’s choice of booking agencies, and would have barred any integration of Pukkelpop into Live Nation while proceedings ran, under the supervision of an independent trustee.

The College never had to decide whether to impose them. Live Nation offered the commitments after being told what the investigation had found, the regulator said, “to ensure the structural separation of Pukkelpop’s operation from the rest of its domestic activities and thereby avoid a prolonged process.”

The BCA market-tested those commitments with selected market participants before deciding they answered its preliminary concerns and making them binding.

The decision carries no finding of infringement against Live Nation , and involves no admission by the company or its affiliates, though the BCA said it “will nonetheless continue monitoring closely the developments in the Belgian live music and entertainment sector.”

Live Nation said the voluntary commitments confirmed the approach it and Pukkelpop had always intended for the festival, which would go on being organized by its own team with its identity, creativity, and character intact, according to VRT .

Pukkelpop spokesman Frederik Luyten told the broadcaster that the festival would carry on as before, as had always been the intention, with Live Nation remaining the owner and the team under Mahassine keeping full freedom over artistic, commercial, and organizational decisions.

Pukkelpop and Live Nation announced the ownership change in October 2025, presenting it as the continuation of a “collaboration of more than 40 years.”

The companies said in the announcement: “ Live Nation will become the ultimate parent company, supporting the festival’s leadership and team to ensure its further development in the years ahead.”

The festival runs each August in Kiewit , near Hasselt in Flanders, and draws around 250,000 visitors a year, as MBW reported in November 2025.

The BCA said at the time that Live Nation runs three of Belgium’s largest festivals – Rock Werchter , Dour , and Graspop – manages venues including Forest National and Lotto Arena , and sells tickets through Ticketmaster .

The Belgian outcome arrives while Live Nation is contesting the result of a US antitrust trial.

A federal jury in Manhattan found on April 15 this year that Live Nation and Ticketmaster had illegally monopolized the US ticketing and amphitheater markets, in a case pressed by 33 states and the District of Columbia after the US Department of Justice settled mid-trial.

Live Nation has challenged the verdict in post-trial motions, and has said it will appeal any unfavorable rulings on them.

Live Nation posted annual revenues of USD $25.2 billion for 2025, up 9% year-over-year.

It has continued expanding in Europe while the Belgian investigation was under way, agreeing in December 2025 to acquire Copenhagen’s Royal Arena from Realdania and the City of Copenhagen , and in August this year to take a 51% stake in a joint venture that will run three Prague venues, including the 20,000 -capacity O2 arena .

That Prague deal remains subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions. Music Business Worldwide

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_Originally reported by [Music Business Worldwide](https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/live-nation-keeps-pukkelpop-but-wont-run-it-for-at-least-10-years-as-belgium-closes-its-competition-probe/)._