UK Antitrust Agency Orders Viagogo To Divest Chunk Of StubHub Operations

Citing competition concerns, the U.K.’s antitrust watchdog is ordering Viagogo to sell StubHub’s international business.

After taking a closer look into the $4 billion merger between the two companies, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said in a Tuesday (Feb. 2) press release that it has ruled Viagogo must sell StubHub’s business outside North America.

The CMA said it concluded the merger “will lead to a substantial reduction in competition in the secondary ticketing market” in the United Kingdom. “This could lead to customers who use secondary ticketing platforms facing higher fees or poorer service in future.”

The U.K. agency said of its order, “This will mean that the StubHub international business – including in the U.K. – will be independently owned and run by a separate company, with no input from Viagogo.”

Stuart McIntosh, chair of the CMA’s inquiry group, said, “Creating a fully independent StubHub international business will maintain competition in the U.K. and help ensure that the users of these ticketing platforms don’t face higher prices or poorer quality of service.”

He said the CMA had considered “unwinding the merger in full,” among other options, but decided competition concerns would be resolved by this partial measure.

The Competition and Markets Authority added that it will “determine key conditions of the sale, such as the right of the purchaser to use the StubHub brand for the next 10 years. The CMA will also need to approve the purchaser of the business before any sale.”

The antitrust agency became involved in the Feb. 2020 merger deal because in the U.K., those two companies were the main providers of secondary ticketing platforms.

The evidence shows the two companies “have no significant competitors” in the U.K. — and have between them 90 percent market share, the antitrust agency said.

The CMA kicked off its full investigation in June 2020. Viagogo had said the operations and brands of StubHub and Viagogo would remain separate during the probe.