Viagogo offers to sell non-US StubHub businesses to escape forced disposals

Viagogo has offered to sell its non-US StubHub businesses in a bid to ward off tougher action from competition regulators.

The secondary ticketing website has written to the UK Competition & Markets Authority to propose that it sell the international StubHub business, which it bought as part of a takeover of the wider US organisation earlier this year. 

The move comes weeks after the regulator warned it could force a sale of the entire StubHub business following an in-depth probe into the merger which found the two companies were "close competitors in an already very concentrated market".

The CMA had said that together, Stubhub, which had been owned by eBay, and London headquartered Viagogo had a market share of more than 90pc and were the first and second largest players in the UK in the secondary ticketing space.

Under the proposed remedy, details of which were released on Tuesday, Viagogo said it was offering to dispose of all the StubHub business outside of the US and Canada, leaving it with a North American StubHub business. 

It said this business would be blocked from being able to market to UK customers.

Whoever bought the international business would be given all the customer and transaction data to "compete in secondary ticketing in the UK and beyond", Viagogo added.

Competition regulators are currently fielding comments on the merger, and will need to make a decision early next month.

It has taken steps to intervene in the merger, which already completed, amid fears it could lead to higher fees for customers who resold or bought tickets to live events on the sites, as well as worse service and less innovation in the space.

It has previously said it had taken into account the effect that the Covid-19 pandemic was having on live events, but that the two companies remained significant players in the market. 

A spokesman for Viagogo said: "We look forward to working with the CMA to deliver a comprehensive solution which addresses their concerns and we believe this proposal would achieve that."