Italy’s Communications Regulatory Authority AGCOM has fined viagogo over €12M for breaking the country’s laws prohibiting commercial resale above face value, in what is the latest in a number of substantial fines the company has faced in Italy in recent years. According to AGCOM, the platform hosted resale tickets for commercial sale for over 68 events in Italy in 2022, often for prices over ten times the ticket’s face value.
An amendment to Italian legislation was introduced to Italy’s 2017 budget law to criminalise ticket touting. Subsumed into Italy’s Secondary Ticketing Act in March 2018, the law prevents tickets from being sold for commercial purposes above face value. Tickets can only be sold through platforms that are certified by the Italian copyright collecting agency (SIAE) and Italy’s governmental tax agency (Agenzia delle Entrate).
While €12M is a substantial sum for any individual person, for viagogo – an international corporation which purchased its rival Stubhub for $4B in 2020 – this will be a relatively small setback; similarly international action will be required to fix the problem of uncapped resale that viagogo represents.
With over 40 major ticket resale cases taking place across the EU since 2016, we hope that the EU’s own Consumer Protection Cooperation Network will soon take a serious look at ticket resale.
AGCOM’s ruling is available here.