However , even in the depths of the lockdown , quite a bit has occurred – the most high-profile being Viagogo ’ s purchase of StubHub for $ 4.05bn (£ 3.25bn ).

A competition complaint initiated by FanFair Alliance forced a divestiture of the non-US parts of this new acquisition , but as of today Viagogo controls StubHub North America – and in the UK , they hold an unassailable monopoly in uncapped ticket resale .

Given the controversies surrounding Viagogo ’ s business practices , this is problematic . Especially given the limited successes of the Competition and Markets Authority ( CMA ) to bring these practices under control .

Although competent at pushing Viagogo into greater legal compliance , our competition regulator has proved far less adept at actual enforcement . In fact , the CMA ’ s unfathomable decision in September 2019 to declare Viagogo “ compliant ” with a painstakingly obtained court order , despite overwhelming

Adam Webb

evidence to the contrary , has helped unpick much of their previous good work .

This decision has also triggered less than optimum results elsewhere . Google , for instance , has now rowed back significantly on previous commitments to tackle misleading search adverts for tickets .

Despite newspaper investigations showing massscale fraud continuing to take place on Viagogo , the CMA eventually waved a white flag in August 2021 – passing the buck to government and urging it to toughen up the laws on ticket touting .

In the nine months since , we ’ ve heard not a peep on the matter from either the CMA or the Department for Digital , Culture ,

Media & Sport .

All of which is immensely frustrating . After taking so many steps forward since FanFair was founded in mid-2016 , we ’ ve now gone one or two back . With live shows returning en masse , this is the last thing anyone needs – especially as the “ fixes ” to rampant online ticket touting are relatively straightforward .

In my view , that means four actions :

1 . Promoters , ticket companies and artists must make crystal clear – at the point of sale – that tickets are for “ consumers only ” and not for “ traders or commercial resellers ”. And they need to start properly promoting their approved resale services .

2 . Google must act responsibly . It should cease accepting advertising from rogue companies and do more to help its users find “ official ” sources of tickets . If it won ’ t do this , then legislators should use the Online Safety Bill to force change .

3 . The CMA should revise its

court order and make Viagogo liable for tickets listed by “ traders ” on their platform – ensuring there is evidence that those tickets have actually been purchased . This would markedly reduce instances of “ speculative ticketing ” ( i . e . fraud ).

4 . Government should accept the recommendations made by the CMA in August 2021 and strengthen laws around ticket resale . This would include a ban on resellers selling more tickets for an event than they can legally buy on the primary market .

Alternatively , the UK government could simply follow the example of Ireland and put an outright ban on resale above face value . This would also fix things .

None of this is rocket science and none of these changes are particularly controversial , but if enacted then we could finally move forward again , making it easier for customers to resell a ticket while preventing exploitation of British audiences who supported the live event industry in its hour of need .