You finally launched your event ticketing platform into new markets. After months of platform optimization, legal reviews, payment partner negotiations, and partner onboarding, you’re ready to go live and scale ticket sales across borders.

But then, your customer issued you a chargeback, and a payment processor suspends your account. A tax notice hits your inbox, or worse, your platform gets flagged for non-compliance in a key market.

Why is global growth so risky for ticketing businesses? What makes it so operationally and legally complex? And how do you protect your business from all the backend chaos that threatens your business expansion endeavours?

You need to understand this before expanding further. Subsequently, beneath the excitement of cross-border sales lies a web of unseen complications that can derail your growth.

The hidden risk of global expansion in Ticketing

Expanding a ticketing business to serve more events, artists, and organizers across regions sounds like a dream come through for any ticketing business. It means more reach, more partners, and more revenue.

But expansion also means dealing with:

• Constantly evolving tax rules and digital services regulations

• Complex foreign exchange and cross-border payouts

• Local consumer protection laws around refunds and cancellations

• Fraud spikes and chargeback risks

• Payment method fragmentation by region

Each new market has its limitations across financial, legal, and operational complexity. Without the right infrastructure, your team ends up buried in admin work chasing tax filings, refund requests, and fraud alerts instead of focusing on audience growth and event success.

Why Ticketing is operationally challenging

The ticketing industry is growing, driven by a surge in in-person events, digital live experiences, and hybrid format events. But selling tickets, especially globally, isn’t as simple as publishing a ticket page.

Here are four reasons why ticketing platforms are particularly exposed to backend risk:

1. Tax, VAT, and digital compliance limitations

Selling tickets in multiple countries means figuring out the correct tax rates (which vary for entertainment, digital services, and physical events), registering for VAT/GST where needed, and ensuring invoices and reporting are compliant in each region. Get it wrong and you’re liable for extreme penalties or could be blocked from operating.

2. Chargebacks and fraud are inescapable

Ticketing fraud is rampant. Fraudsters buy tickets and issue chargebacks, whereas real customers complain when digital tickets don’t arrive, or resell markets trigger confusion. And platforms often get stuck holding the financial bag.

3. Fragmented payment expectations

Attendees want to pay using their preferred local payment methods, from bank transfers in Nigeria to Apple Pay in the UK to M-Pesa in Kenya. If you can’t support them, they’ll drop off at checkout, allowing you to lose valuable customers

4. Event refunds and disputes

Whether it’s an artist cancelling or a customer who can’t make it, refunds are an inevitable part of ticketing. But if your business is directly listed as the merchant, every refund is a compliance, financial, and operational issue you now own.

These challenges can be overwhelming for businesses, but with an alternative like a Merchant of Record (MoR) model, you don’t have to manage these complexities yourself. The MoR model takes full responsibility for them. 

Let’s take a closer look at what a Merchant of Record is and how this model transforms the way ticketing businesses operate across borders.

Merchant of Record (MoR)

A Merchant of Record is a specialized entity that handles payments, taxes, compliance, and risk on your business's behalf. When you use an MoR, you’re no longer the legal seller of record; the MoR is.

They:

• Collect and remit taxes

• Manage fraud and chargebacks

• Handle compliance with local regulations

• Issue receipts and financial records

• Support multi-currency payments and local methods

You still control the customer experience, you still manage events, ticket listings, pricing, and audience engagement.

But behind the scenes, the MoR handles the financial, legal, and regulatory aspects of the transaction, so you don’t have to build all of that in-house, and you have enough time to focus on your customer experience and welfare.

Why Ticketing businesses need MoR support

For ticketing platforms with a global ambition of scaling their business across borders, MoR is the safety net that allows you to scale without breaking your growth business structure.

1. You cut regulatory risk

Every region you expand into has unique tax rules, refund mandates, and digital selling laws. MoRs already operate within those frameworks, so you avoid nasty surprises and legal bottlenecks.

2. You accept more payment methods without friction

From local debit cards to mobile wallets, MoRs give you broader payment coverage. That means more completed checkouts and fewer failed transactions; you do not need to build banking partnerships in every country.

3. You eliminate chargeback exposure

MoRs monitor fraud patterns, use built-in risk scoring, and take ownership of chargebacks. That means fewer financial problems and fewer disruptions to your payment infrastructure.

4. You free up internal teams

No need to hire tax experts, compliance lawyers, or build a global payment ops team. Your team can stay lean and focused on audience growth, not backend complexity.

MoR in Action: A Real-World Ticketing Scenario

Imagine you’re running a ticketing platform expanding across Africa and Europe. Without a MoR, you need:

• 10+ tax registrations

• Local legal entities or partners

• Multiple bank accounts and Foreign exchange pipelines

• A full-time team managing refunds, fraud, compliance, and disputes

With a Merchant of Record like Startbutton, your platform can:

• Sell in 15 African markets without setting up a local incorporation

• Offer local payment methods like USSD, mobile money, and cards

• Automate tax compliance and invoicing

• Reduce chargebacks with built-in fraud tools

The result?

• Faster go-to-market strategy execution in new countries

• Cleaner operations

• Lower financial risk

• Better customer experience

Why Startbutton is built for Ticketing platforms

At Startbutton, we’ve designed our MoR platform to specifically support fast-growing ticketing platforms like Tiks, EgoTickets, latitude59, Fienta, Africanfintech summit, and many more. Whether you’re selling tickets for events in Accra, Lagos, or Nairobi, or scaling to international markets, we help you:

• Stay tax-compliant

• Handle complex refunds and chargebacks

• Accept multi-currency and mobile-first payments

• Operate legally without setting up multiple entities

You keep creating unforgettable events and experiences for your customers while we handle the legal, financial, and regulatory complexity that comes with growth.

Ready to expand without the risk?

Start exploring how Startbutton’s MoR platform helps ticketing businesses scale safely from Accra to Nairobi without drowning in compliance, fraud, or finance overhead.

Have questions or would like to get started with Startbutton? Reach out to us at sales@startbutton.africa
Or sign up to get started on our website: startbutton.africa