In this guide
The box office behind GlastonburyTwo breaches and a $3.25 million settlementA tale of two Trustpilot profilesThe fees you never get backWhere the honest verdict landsFAQsSee Tickets sells around 44 million tickets a year as a primary agent
See Tickets sold every one of Glastonbury's 150,000 general sale tickets in 29 minutes back in 2015, and it remains the festival's sole ticket agent today. So, is See Tickets legit? Yes, without much argument, it is the second-largest ticketing company in the UK and sells at face value directly for event organisers. The questions worth your time sit elsewhere: two card-skimming data breaches, a $3.25 million US settlement and fees that vanish when your event is cancelled.
See is a primary agent rather than a resale marketplace, which means it competes on allocation rather than availability. When a fixture or tour sells out at source, buyers move to the secondary market, the territory covered by our Premier League tickets pages, so it pays to understand what each model charges and refunds before choosing between them.
The box office behind Glastonbury
See Tickets grew out of a Nottingham record shop and has traded under its current name since 2004. Vivendi sold the business to Germany's CTS Eventim, Europe's largest ticketing group, in June 2024 for an enterprise value of roughly €300 million (£255 million). It sells around 44 million tickets a year across the UK, US and seven European markets.
Its credentials in the UK are hard to fault. See has been a full member of STAR, the Society of Ticket Agents and Retailers, since January 2013, which binds it to a code of practice on clear pricing and cancelled-event refunds and gives buyers access to a free, government-approved dispute resolution scheme. Add the Glastonbury contract, plus clients from Reading and Leeds to Tomorrowland, and the legitimacy question answers itself.
Two breaches and a $3.25 million settlement
The security record is the ugliest part of the file. Malicious card-skimming code sat on See Tickets checkout pages from June 2019 until January 2022, harvesting names, addresses, card numbers, expiry dates and CVV codes for two and a half years before it was fully removed. See never published a global victim count, though its filing with the Texas attorney general confirmed 92,074 affected in that state alone.
Then it happened again. A second skimmer ran from February to July 2023, and this time the company's notification to the Maine attorney general put the total at 323,498 people. US litigation over both incidents produced a $3.25 million class action settlement, approved in 2024. UK regulators took no public action, in contrast to the £1.25 million ICO fine handed to the rival we examined in our Ticketmaster review for its own 2018 breach.
A tale of two Trustpilot profiles
Reputation depends on which side of the Atlantic you buy from. The UK site holds a 4-star score from more than 121,000 Trustpilot reviews as of July 2026, with around 69% at five stars, and the company replies actively to complaints. Satisfied buyers describe quick confirmation, valid barcodes and painless entry.
The US operation is a different animal. Its separate Trustpilot profile scores poorly, the entity is not BBB accredited and its complaint record leans heavily on undelivered tickets, unreachable support and refund refusals after cancelled festivals such as Texas Eclipse. None of it points to fake tickets, the accusation that dogs the platform in our viagogo review, but American buyers should expect far weaker after-sales care.
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The fees you never get back
Here is the complaint that unites both markets. See charges a per-ticket booking fee plus a transaction fee, and when an event is cancelled the UK refund returns face value and booking fee but keeps the transaction fee, while the US arm keeps every fee it charged. One buyer told MoneySavingExpert they lost more than £25 in fees on a single cancelled diving event; a Trustpilot reviewer reported £42 gone when a Peter Kay show fell through.
Buyers also flag e-tickets released only days before an event, and the November 2024 Glastonbury sale drew widespread anger over a randomised queue that left fans staring at a frozen progress bar. Frustrating, certainly, though every one of those complaints concerns service rather than authenticity.
Where the honest verdict lands
See Tickets is legitimate by any sensible measure: real allocation, STAR membership, Eventim ownership and genuine barcodes. Buy from the UK site with confidence, treat the fees as sunk costs and, given the breach history, pay with a card offering strong chargeback rights.
- Strengths: face-value pricing, valid tickets direct from organisers, STAR dispute resolution and the Glastonbury pedigree
- Weaknesses: two card-data breaches in four years, non-refundable fees on cancellations and a poor US complaint record
- Best for: on-sale day purchases at face value; least suited to sold-out events, which it simply cannot supply
The structural gap is coverage. A primary agent ends where its allocation ends, and for sold-out football the choice becomes which secondary platform to trust, a judgement our guide to spotting ticket scams can sharpen before you spend anything.
FAQs
1. Does See Tickets sell sport as well as music?
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Yes, it tickets sport, theatre, comedy and attractions alongside its core music and festival business.
2. How do See Tickets e-tickets arrive?
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Most arrive by email or through a venue app, with dispatch timing set by the event organiser.
3. What is See Tickets Fan-to-Fan resale?
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A UK marketplace where fans resell spares at face value or less, with the original barcode cancelled and a new one issued to the buyer.
4. Is the refund protection add-on itself refundable?
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No, the premium is non-refundable once purchased, even if the event is later cancelled.
5. Can UK buyers escalate an unresolved complaint?
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Yes, STAR runs a free alternative dispute resolution service that covers See Tickets as a member.
See Tickets is a genuine primary agent with real allocation and a bruised security record. 1BoxOffice serves fans the primary market cannot, covering sold-out fixtures since 2006 with a 150% money-back guarantee paid in cash.
Sources: Vivendi and CTS Eventim press releases; STAR member register; Trustpilot reviews; Texas and Maine attorney general breach filings; US District Court settlement documents; MoneySavingExpert forum.
