eBay's massive US secondary ticket selling site StubHub has launched in the UK for online and mobile app sales, promising to be an ethical alternative to Viagogo.
StubHub is taking on UK ticket sellers like Ticketmaster, Aloud.com, and See Tickets with no booking fees for buyers.
StubHub will not buy or sell tickets for profit, rather it will provide the forum for the tickets to be sold.
Channel 4 won a high court battle to show a Dispatches programme on Viagogo which claims that the online ticket seller inflates prices and competes with fans for tickets to high profile shows.
Brigitte Ricou-Bellan, GM International of StubHub told The Huffington Post UK: "There’s no doubt that Dispatches must have made for some uncomfortable viewing for our competitors. We have a very different proposition which does not include buying and selling tickets on our own behalf, nor benefitting from direct allocations from promoters and venues."
Just as eBay launched pop-up physical stores, including one in Dover Street London, StubHub will have physical pick-up spots in the West End.
The UK site already lists more than 140,000 tickets to events including artists such as Feist, Madonna, Bruce Springsteen and Florence and the Machine.
Labor MP Sharon Hodgson who is campaigning for the regulation of the ticket selling industry said: “I’m not against private enterprise, and these big companies do offer some guarantees to customers, but the secondary ticket market doesn’t operate in the interests of the consumer, as was clearly shown by Dispatches a few weeks ago. Stubhub say they won’t be buying and selling tickets themselves – but Viagogo were saying exactly the same thing until they were exposed.
She went on to say: "Stubhub are entering a crowded online marketplace in the UK, and the fact they are willing to do so just demonstrates how much money is being made off the back of ordinary fans, and will continue to be made unless something is done to regulate the industry.
The government needs to look seriously about how we can rebalance the scales in favour of the event-going public instead of the small number of people who are creaming off big profits."
StubHub hopes to win over UK ticket buyers with its FanProtect™ Guarantee which, much like Visa's security programme, guards against ticket fraud.
UK artists and venues will be able to list tickets for sale just as easily as they could list items for sale on eBay.