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French consumer protection agency DGCCRF has fined Global Service Concierge and its parent company WSI Live SA, €150,000 for misleading resale practices.

The investigations, carried out by its National Investigation Department, revealed that the two companies, which operate ticket resale platforms live-booker.fr and next-concert.com, were tricking consumers into believing that they were offering resale tickets with the authorisation of the promoters, whereas no authorisation was obtained. In France, it is illegal for tickets to be resold without the authorisation of the promoter under Article 313-6-2 of the French Criminal Code.

The news continues a pattern of Global Services Concierge’s malpractice in secondary ticketing, after the company was ordered to compensate PRODISS €100,000 for infringing French anti-scalping legislation in November 2020. The judgment expressly prohibited the company from offering resale services that sell tickets without promoter authorisation.

The sanctions against Global Services Concierge are an important moment in the fight against ticket scalpers and demonstrate the impact appropriate legal regulation can have on the uncapped secondary market.

Google announced today that secondary ticketing company Viagogo has been suspended globally as an advertiser with immediate effect, meaning it will no longer be able to pay for higher search rankings.

This follows the CMA’s announcement, less than a fortnight ago, that it would be pursuing legal action to find Viagogo in contempt of court, after the site repeatedly failed to overhaul the way it presents information. The UK’s FanFair Alliance, Spain’s Association of Music Promoters and French live music association PRODISS have been involved with discussions with Google on the issue for several years, and last year UK MPs, The Football Association, UK Music and others signed a letter to senior Google executives advising them to ban Viagogo’s advertisements.

Google’s suspension of Viagogo as an advertiser is a major step forward in preventing consumers buying tickets from suspicious resellers. It follows an update to Google’s Adword policy last year, which required that in order to be certified with Google, ticket resale websites must clearly inform fans they are a secondary marketplace, declare when prices that are higher than face value and make all fees associated with the purchase clear.

Google’s move to protect consumers is encouraging. The tech giant confirmed: “When people use our platform for help in purchasing tickets, we want to make sure that they have an experience they can trust.”

FEAT Director Sam Shemtob commented: “This is a hugely significant step — Google is the first port of call for fans searching for gig tickets across the world.

“The move appears to have been triggered by recent court proceedings led by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority as well as pressure from the UK Parliament’s Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee.

“It’s worth noting the work of the UK’s FanFair Alliance, Spain’s Association of Music Promoters and French live music industry association PRODISS, who have been engaged in multiple conversations on the issue with Google, some of which date back to 2016.

“We hope other search engines and social media platforms will follow suit.”

Tag: PRODISS

French Consumer Protection Agency DGCCRF Hands Down €150,000 in Fines for Misleading Ticket Resale Practices

VIAGOGO ADVERTS BANNED BY GOOGLE