Short answer: viagogo is a real company and the tickets usually get you through the door, but it is a resale marketplace, not a box office, and it is one of the most complained-about ways to buy event tickets. Third-party sellers set the prices, service fees show up late in checkout, and the famous viagogo guarantee covers getting valid tickets, not getting your money back when your plans change. If you buy here, buy carefully. For most events, a primary seller or a more transparent resale site is the safer first stop.
What Is Viagogo, and How Is It Connected to StubHub?
Viagogo was founded in London in 2006 and runs a global marketplace where ticket holders and professional resellers list tickets for concerts, sports, and theater. Viagogo does not own the tickets and does not set their prices. Sellers do, which is why the same seat can appear at wildly different prices and why popular shows routinely list far above face value.
The name that matters behind the curtain is StubHub. Viagogo operates under the same corporate group as StubHub, with StubHub focused on North America and viagogo aimed at international markets. The two share ownership, but they are separate storefronts with separate checkout experiences, and viagogo’s has drawn far more regulatory attention over the years. It is also worth knowing that viagogo is not a member of STAR, the UK Society of Ticket Agents and Retailers, so it does not operate under that body’s code of practice the way official UK ticket sellers do.
How Viagogo Pricing and Fees Actually Work
The first price you see on viagogo is rarely the price you pay. Sellers set the listing price, then viagogo adds its own service and delivery fees, which vary by event and timing. There is no published fixed percentage to look up, because viagogo does not set one flat rate. The total, including fees, appears on the final review page before you pay, and that page, not the search results, is the only number worth comparing against other sites.
This practice has a name: drip pricing, where mandatory charges are revealed in stages through checkout. It is the single biggest source of viagogo complaints and the main reason regulators keep circling the company. Buyers feel anchored to the low first price, click through under time pressure, sometimes with countdown timers running, and only discover the real total at the end. The defense is simple discipline. Slow down, reach the final total, check the currency as well, since viagogo sells worldwide and listings can display in pounds or euros, and compare that full number with the primary seller and other resale sites before paying anything.
The Viagogo Guarantee: What It Covers and Where It Stops
Viagogo’s guarantee promises that you will receive valid tickets in time for the event. If something goes wrong with an order, the company says it will find comparable replacement tickets or refund you. That promise is real, and it is the main reason the site is usable at all. Millions of orders complete without a problem.
The limits matter more than the promise, though:
- Cancelled events: buyers can choose a cash refund or a credit of 120% of the order value. This is the strongest part of the guarantee.
- Rescheduled events: your tickets are usually simply valid for the new date, and refunds are not offered. If you cannot make the new date, your option is to relist the tickets and hope they sell.
- Changed plans: no refund. If you buy the wrong date, double-book, or simply change your mind, the guarantee does not help you.
- Replacement tickets: “comparable” is viagogo’s call, and replacement seats may not match the exact section or row you originally bought.
- Speed matters: if tickets do not arrive or do not work at the gate, you need to contact viagogo immediately, with your order details ready. Problems reported days later are far harder to fix.
In short, the guarantee protects you against invalid tickets and cancellations. It does not protect you against high prices, disappointing seats, or your own schedule.
What Regulators Have Found
Viagogo’s fee practices are not just a matter of angry reviews. In the UK, the Competition and Markets Authority opened an investigation into StubHub and viagogo in November 2025, focused on the mandatory additional charges added during checkout. The CMA has stressed that it has reached no conclusions yet on whether the law was broken, but the investigation is still the kind of scrutiny few ticket sites attract.
In the US, the parent company faced the Federal Trade Commission. On April 9, 2026, StubHub Holdings agreed to settle FTC allegations that it advertised prices without clearly disclosing the full total, including mandatory fees, during the first days the FTC’s fee rule took effect in May 2025. The settlement put $10 million toward refunds for affected US buyers and barred the company from misrepresenting total prices and refund terms. The company did not admit liability and said it had fixed the issue quickly, but the case underlines the practical lesson for buyers on either site: never trust the first price you see. Only the checkout total is real.
The pressure to change is coming from the industry too. In November 2025, major artists including Robert Smith and Sam Fender signed an open letter urging the UK government to clamp down on ticket touts and the secondary markets, naming the practices of sites like viagogo as the problem. None of this makes viagogo a scam in the legal sense. It does mean the site operates under a cloud that cleaner competitors simply do not have, and buyers should factor that reputation in.
When Viagogo Makes Sense, and When to Use Something Else
There are narrow cases where viagogo earns its keep. It has deep international inventory, so for events outside the US where the primary seller’s site is confusing, sold out, or not in your language, viagogo may be the only straightforward route to a ticket. Last-minute buyers sometimes find listings here after other marketplaces have thinned out.
For US events, though, better options usually exist. Start with the primary seller, the venue or the official platform, where tickets sell at face value with predictable fees. If the event is sold out, compare resale sites on their all-in prices. Our StubHub legit check found its North American storefront the more polished half of this corporate family, and our TickPick vs StubHub comparison covers a rival that built its name on showing the full price up front. Viagogo sits in the same Is It Legit? hub as those checks, but it ranks below both as a buying experience.
If You Buy on Viagogo Anyway
- Compare the final total only. Ignore the listing price. Screenshot the review page total for your records.
- Check the currency before paying, especially on international events.
- Weigh the markup. If a ticket is listed at double face value months before the event, waiting or checking the primary seller again is often smarter. New dates and extra inventory appear all the time.
- Remember the reschedule rule. If there is any chance you cannot attend a new date, that risk is yours. Buy accordingly.
- Keep your order email and act immediately if tickets do not arrive or fail at the gate. The guarantee works best for buyers who call while the event is still happening.
The Bottom Line
Viagogo is legit in the narrow sense: it is a long-running, real marketplace, the tickets it sells usually work, and its guarantee does deliver replacements or refunds when an order genuinely fails. But legit is not the same as good value or low stress. Drip fees, seller-set markups, no refunds for rescheduled events, and a trail of regulator attention in both the UK and the US make it a last resort rather than a first choice. Check the primary seller first, compare all-in prices on StubHub or TickPick for US events, and only come back to viagogo if it truly has the ticket nobody else does.
Founder & Editor at Durofy
