The UK’s business regulator, the Competition & Markets Authority has today made a final ruling on the $4bn merger between Viagogo and StubHub – requiring that StubHub’s international business (outside of North America) is sold off in order to ally competition concerns. The full announcement can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/cma-requires-viagogo-to-sell-stubhub-s-international-business As well as launching an […]
As a result of an in-depth ‘Phase 2’ investigation, the Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) have today provisionally raised competition concerns following Viagogo’s $4.05bn acquisition of StubHub. The CMA has set out potential options for addressing its provisional concerns, which include requiring Viagogo to sell all or part of StubHub. In reaching this provisional decision, […]
The Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) has today announced that Viagogo’s acquisition of StubHub will be referred for an in depth investigation. This on the basis that the deal might constitute a relevant “merger situation” and result in a substantial lessening of competition within the UK market. https://www.gov.uk/cma-cases/viagogo-stubhub-merger-inquiry#reference-decision FanFair Alliance has welcomed the announcement and issued […]
Today, the UK’s Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) have provided an update on Viagogo’s controversial merger with StubHub – highlighting continued competition concerns with the $4.05bn acquisition, and paving way for an extensive “Phase 2” investigation. More detail here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/merger-of-viagogo-and-stubhub-raises-competition-concerns FanFair Alliance has led calls for the merger – recently described by Forbes as “the […]
In a landmark case for National Trading Standards, online ticket touts Peter Hunter and David Smith (aka BZZ) were jailed today for 4 years and 30 months respectively. Following a long-running trial, the pair had been found guilty on February 13th 2020 of fraudulently and dishonestly buying and reselling tickets for high-profile music and entertainment events. […]
This morning, following a series of concerns raised by FanFair Alliance and others, the Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) have demanded that controversial secondary ticketing platform StubHub make a number of urgent changes to its UK website – or face court action. CMA states that StubHub has been: – failing to adequately warn people that […]
On November 25th, the highly controversial “secondary ticketing” platform Viagogo announced it will – subject to regulatory approval – acquire its competitor site StubHub in a $4bn deal with eBay. Viagogo has a long history of misleading and unlawful practices in the UK and around the world. In November 2018, the site was served a court order by […]
The Music Managers Forum (MMF) and Featured Artists Coalition (FAC) have announced that Sam Fender and his manager Owain Davies (od management) will receive the FanFair Alliance Award for Outstanding Contribution to Live Music at the 2019 Artist & Manager Awards (A&MAs). Forging his career in grassroots venues across the UK, Sam Fender has developed into one of the country’s most exciting and engaging live performers. Following […]
FanFair Alliance, the music industry campaign established in July 2016 to tackle “industrial-scale online ticket touting”, has today published new guidance to help artists and managers tackle exploitative secondary ticketing. Backed by the Music Managers Forum (MMF), the guidance can be downloaded here, and advocates that artists, event organisers and venues make two clear and […]
This afternoon, Google have announced a global suspension of Viagogo‘s advertising account – with immediate effect. More details here at BBC.co.uk. FanFair Alliance have campaigned extensively on the issue of misleading search advertising by secondary ticketing sites, particularly Viagogo – publishing detailed research, appealing to the Advertising Standards Authority, engaging constructively with Google, and raising the impact of these […]