Viagogo has proposed selling off all but its North American StubHub business in order to get regulatory approval in the UK for the already-completed acquisition of its ticket resale rival.
Viagogo completed its purchase of StubHub from previous owner, eBay, earlier this year. By the time the purchase was completed, the UK’s Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) had already confirmed it was investigating the deal because of competition concerns, a combined Viagogo/StubHub set to totally dominate the British secondary ticketing market.
For its part, Viagogo tried to argue that it also competes with face-value ticket exchanges and primary ticket agents, so there would still be plenty of competition in the marketplace, but after a two phase investigation, the CMA stated its competition law concerns remained.
According to the Press Association, Viagogo made that proposal to the CMA last week. Any buyer would get access to both the StubHub brand and its customer base in all non-North American markets. “The purchaser will therefore,” Viagogo’s proposal reportedly states, “be provided with the customer and transaction data necessary to compete in secondary ticketing in the UK and beyond.”
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