Viagogo Stubhub takeover blocked by UK watchdog
Britain’s competition watchdog has provisionally blocked the $4bn takeover of ticket resale website StubHub by its controversial rival Viagogo.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said Viagogo must now address its concerns, and outlined a series of options, which included potentially selling all or part of StubHub.
An investigation found that the merger could result in a lower quality of service and higher fees for customers, who resell or buy secondary tickets to live events.
“The evidence we’ve seen so far consistently points in the same direction – that Viagogo and StubHub have a market share of more than 90% combined and compete closely with each other,” said Stuart McIntosh, chair of the CMA inquiry group.
Stubhub is owned by Ebay.