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 worst deal ever” – to be throughly investigated on competition grounds, and has issued the following statement:
We welcome today’s announcement from the CMA and hope it leads the way to an in-depth Phase 2 investigation.
Viagogo remains a highly controversial business. The company has widely flouted consumer protection law in the UK, and remains under investigation in numerous other countries. Even today, amidst this terrible crisis that has decimated live music, Viagogo’s suppliers are attempting to sell tickets to cancelled events.
Such a company, that has created thousands of consumer victims, should not be allowed to monopolise for-profit ‘secondary ticketing’. That outcome would raise significant competition concerns in the UK and threaten to reverse hard-won reforms to prevent abuses in this market.