The UK competition watchdog should intervene in the $4bn (£3.1bn) takeover of ticket resale website StubHub by its controversial rival Viagogo, according to the managers of artists including PJ Harvey, Little Mix and Mumford & Sons.
In a letter to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), music industry group FanFair Alliance – which includes the managers of a host of top-selling acts – warned the deal would hand Viagogo a monopoly in UK ticket resale, with “significant and damaging implications” for the live music industry.
StubHub has been Viagogo’s only major competitor in the UK since Ticketmaster shut down its GetMeIn and Seatwave units in the face of negative publicity and poor financial performance.
FanFair Alliance, which campaigns against industrial-scale online ticket touting, said the impact on competition, coupled with Viagogo’s “unenviable track record for creating consumer victims” should spur the CMA into action.
Consumer group Which? has also called on the regulator to launch an investigation, while some figures in the music industry are understood to be exploring the possibility of asking the EU’s Competition Commission to block the takeover.
A spokesperson for the Switzerland-based Viagogo said: “Viagogo expects the market regulator to look at this deal as they would with any deal of this size and we will be working with them collaboratively on that as required.”
Viagogo has attracted repeated criticism for allegedly ripping off fans, as well as for its attitude towards attempts by regulators and politicians to change its business practices.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s You and Yours programme, managing director Cris Miller insisted there was an “incredible amount of competition” in the UK resale market. And he defended the company’s record, saying much of the criticism of it was based on “misunderstanding and myths”.
But its letter to the CMA, FanFair Alliance said the company’s “chequered history” indicated its directors were not fit to run a company they claim would end up with nearly 100% of the UK ticket resale market if the StubHub deal completes.
The grouppointed to Viagogo’s “persistent reluctance to follow consumer protection law” until it was forced into doing so by a court order obtained by the CMA.
It also said the company was responsible for “creating significant volumes of consumer victims” in the UK, pointing to examples of people paying much higher prices than they expected, or buying tickets through the website only to be turned away at the venue. FanFair Alliance highlighted the company’s failure to show up to two parliamentary select committee hearings and also pointed to ongoing court proceedings in European territories and action by consumer bodies in Australia and New Zealand.
The Guardian has previously uncovered evidence of the company’s alliances with powerful ticket touts able to harvest thousands of tickets ahead of genuine fans, as well as instances of “profiteering” from charity events.
Earlier this year, Google banned Viagogo from paying to appear at the top of search results, sending its website traffic into freefall.
But Google reversed its decision earlier this week after the company made a number of commitments to clarify the information it displays to consumers.
The ban remains in place in Czech Republic, Sweden, Finland, Hungary, Japan, Slovakia and Taiwan, countries where Viagogo is still the subject of regulatory action.
