viagogo to Reacquire StubHub Trademarks in Non-UK Markets

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has given viagogo permission to reacquire certain StubHub trademarks and domain names outside the UK and Europe from Digital Fuel Capital.

The deal:

• As per Ticket News, the CMA’s approval only covers intellectual property assets such as StubHub trademarks (both registered and unregistered) and the matching web domains for those 22 “rest-of-world” countries.

• The 22 markets are Argentina, Belarus, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, the Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, Uruguay and Venezuela.

• No customer data, transaction history, platform code, marketing services or other operational assets are being exchanged.

• The deal does not lift the ban on relaunching the original StubHub mobile app outside North America.

• viagogo intends to publish a new StubHub-branded app in the Apple and Google stores, available only in those 22 markets.

Permission granted:

• As per The Ticketing Business, the CMA granted permission for viagogo to re-establish the StubHub brand in 22 markets “as it felt that this would not overly impact the ability of StubHub International to compete in the UK.”

• “StubHub International will continue to operate under this branding in the UK and other markets in the European Union, where viagogo also features.”

The backstory:

• viagogo agreed to buy StubHub from eBay for roughly $4 billion in early 2020.

• The CMA blocked the deal until viagogo divested StubHub’s entire business outside North America.

• That occurred in September 2021 when Massachusetts-based Digital Fuel Capital acquired what became “StubHub International.”

The fan experience:

• As per Ticket News, “for fans in Latin America and Asia-Pacific, the StubHub name is likely to return to viagogo-operated storefronts and apps.”

• Inside the UK StubHub International will continue to run its local platform and keep the brand license until 2031.