Viagogo Archives

Viagogo To Compensate 800+ Consumers Following Legal Battle With FRC

Posted on 4 March, 20244 March, 2024

Viagogo has reached a settlement with the Fédération Romande des Consommateurs (FRC), Switzerland’s largest consumer protection organisation.

The secondary ticketing marketplace, whose European headquarters are in Switzerland, has allocated 100,000 CHF (roughly €105,000 or £90,000) as compensation for the 807 individuals who have lodged complaints against Viagogo with the FRC prior to 5 February, 2024.

Viagogo has also agreed to make changes to its Swiss website (viagogo.ch). These are as follows:

Indicating the platform’s status as a resale marketplace in Switzerland’s three national languages and English, so that consumers are not led to believe they are buying from an official seller.
Greater transparency over ticket prices and seating information, with the total cost and seating information clearly shown throughout the buying process.
A reduced number of “pop-up” windows, to limit the pressure put on consumers to make a purchase.
Clearly identifying professional resellers or traders, so that buyers do not falsely believe that they are buying from another consumer.

The FRC first lodged a criminal complaint against Viagogo with the Geneva public prosecutor’s office in 2017 after receiving over 100 complaints against the site. These related to lack of transparency over pricing, pressure-selling tactics, and leading consumers to believe that they are buying from an official ticket seller.

In return for these changes, the FRC has withdrawn its lawsuit. However, should Viagogo fail to meet any of the above commitments, the FRC will be free to make another legal complaint.

Jean Tschopp, head of the FRC’s legal department said “In our view, this agreement was the best option faced to a procedure that was getting bogged down and would certainly have taken many more years before a final decision was reached. Our association preferred concrete improvements for internet users in the form of changes brought to Viagogo’s Swiss website instead of waiting several more years for a final decision”.

Commenting on the news, FEAT director Sam Shemtob said: “While great news, the settlement – made after six years of legal work – highlights the difficulty of hauling uncapped ticket resale sites through the courts. For consumers in the EU, we hope and expect the new Digital Services Act, which requires online marketplaces to improve transparency and desist from pressure buying tactics, will be robustly enforced.”

You can read more about the legal case on the FRC’s website here.

There have been over 40 legal cases against ticket traders and resale platforms in the EU since 2016.

Viagogo fined €23.5M by Italian Regulator for breaking secondary ticketing rules

Posted on 27 June, 202227 June, 2022

Italy’s Communications Regulatory Authority AGCOM has fined viagogo €23.5M for breaking the country’s rules on secondary ticketing and has given it seven days to remove the illegal listings from its site.

The decision, taken at an AGCOM Council meeting on 23 June 2022, followed an investigation by Italy’s financial crime enforcement agency, the Guardia di Finanza. This found that viagogo had listed tickets for 131 events at prices up to six or seven times above their face-value. Events included concerts for artists such as Maneskin, Vasco Rossi, Sting, Green Day, Dua Lipa, Pearl Jam, Placebo, Cesare Cremonini, Paolo Conte and Andrea Bocelli.

An amendment to Italian legislation was introduced to Italy’s 2017 budget law to criminalise ticket touting (art. 1, paragraph 545, of the law 11 December 2016, n. 232). Subsumed into Italy’s Secondary Ticketing Act in March 2018, the law, to be enforced by AGCOM, prevents tickets being sold for commercial purposes or for above face value.

AGCOM’s ruling is available here.

Said FEAT director Sam Shemtob, “This is a substantial fine for viagogo, and a clear requirement to remove illegal listings within seven days. What is especially encouraging is the extensive investigation carried out by Italy’s financial crime enforcement agency working closely with the Italian regulator AGCOM. Legislation across Europe – at both a national and EU basis – is catching up with ticket scalping. If other enforcement authorities follow Italy’s example, the hope of a functional ticket resale market, with scalping largely relegated to the history books, could become a reality”

Italian court upholds €3.7m viagogo fine for ticket touting, rules it is not a “passive hosting provider”

Posted on 23 April, 20213 February, 2022

An Italian court has rejected an appeal from viagogo against a €3,700,000 fine for hosting tickets sold in contravention of Italian law.

The judgment, which was handed down by the Regional Administrative Court of Lazio earlier this month, upholds a 2020 ruling brought by Italian Communications Regulatory Authority AGCOM sanctioning viagogo for listing tickets to 37 events at above face value between March and July 2019.

Italy’s 2017 Budget law states that tickets for entertainment events must only be sold by authorised ticket providers in Italy. However, consumers are permitted to sell unwanted tickets for a price equal to or less than the ticket’s face value.

The judges rejected viagogo’s argument that it was acting as a “passive hosting provider” by merely connecting resellers with potential buyers, which would exempt the resale platform from liability under Italian law implementing the E-Commerce Directive. Instead, viagogo was found to provide a range of services and promote and advertise tickets in a way that could not be considered to be carried out without any awareness or control on its part.

The Court pointed out that “The service provided by the viagogo… clearly does not have the characteristics of passive hosting, given that it clearly does not consist in the mere “storage of information”, but rather in the articulated activities of optimisation and advertising promotion of the titles on sale…. Nor has the appellant in any way substantiated the claim that such complex activities would be carried out by the platform in a completely automatic manner and without any awareness and/or possibility of control on its part”.

In a final dig, the court added that even if viagogo had qualified as a “passive hosting provider,” it would still not have benefited from the liability exemption afforded by the law as it did not act quickly to remove or disable access to the listings once notified by the competent authorities.

This important ruling is another step towards greater accountability of secondary ticketing platforms, which routinely profit from illegal ticket sales. It builds on consistent rulings against liability exemption as a passive hosting provider – from both the Italian Supreme Court (n. 7708 March 19, 2019. Mediaset vs Yahoo!) and European Court (C-324/09, L’Orèal v. eBay and C-236/08, Google v. Louis Vuitton). It comes as European legislators look at tightening the rules around platform liability, with particular regard to marketplaces — including the likes of viagogo.

FEAT Director Sam Shemtob said: “Uncapped secondary marketplaces such as viagogo have long been shielding under the liability exemption offered by EU law by claiming to have little to no knowledge of the activity taking place on their sites. It is time that they’re held responsible for the illegal activity they promote and profit from, both in Italy and across Europe”.

Austrian Supreme Court rules against Viagogo, forcing transparency on ticketing platforms

Posted on 7 May, 20207 May, 2020

Austria’s Supreme Court (OGH) has ordered Viagogo to better inform its buyers about the identity of ticket sellers and the type of ticket being sold by a seller before a purchase is made.

The ruling forces viagogo.at and any other Viagogo or similar websites affecting Austria to disclose the identity of ticket sellers, including name and address, and whether tickets are personalised, ahead of ticket purchase.

The verdict also means that for the first time, customers in Austria are protected from losses caused by misleading information or the absence of essential information by sellers, such as travel costs when access to the show is denied.

Furthermore, if Viagogo doesn’t ensure sellers’ compliance with the registration and the disclosure of their identities, the platforms themselves would be held accountable.

Until now, tickets on secondary platforms operating in Austria were sold anonymously, with buyers not informed when tickets were personalised, leading to them often being denied access to events.

The case against Viagogo was brought by the trade body for sports and leisure companies of the Upper Austrian Chamber of Commerce through the competition protection association, WSV. The basis for the lawsuit was the significantly inflated prices for tickets sold on Viagogo for cabaret events by Monika Gruber and Viktor Gernot, organised by Austrian events agency, Stage. The legal representation was taken over by the Linz-based competition law expert Dr. Johannes Hintermayr.

The Face-value European Alliance for Ticketing said: “The verdict is a remarkable step towards a fairer secondary market in Austria, as it not only forces ticketing transparency, but places responsibility at the feet of the platforms themselves. Congratulations to Dr. Hintermayr and the WVO who have led this extraordinary fight, and let it be one step of many towards the creation of an ethical market, which is all the more important in getting the industry back on its feet post-COVID-19.”

VIAGOGO ANNOUNCES DEAL TO BUY STUBHUB

Posted on 25 November, 20193 February, 2022

Today, Viagogo has announced a $4.05 billion deal to buy StubHub, which it claims will be ‘a win-win for fans — more choice and better pricing,’ according to a statement released on the company’s Twitter account.

StubHub’s current owner, eBay, is selling the company back to its original co-founder, Eric Baker, who is also the founder and CEO of Viagogo. The sale is expected to close by the first quarter of 2020, but is still subject to regulatory approval.

Katie O’Leary, FEAT’s Campaign Lead said:

“It’s alarming to think of Viagogo potentially gaining an even greater stronghold in the secondary ticketing market given it’s been the subject of various legal actions across Europe and banned from advertising on Google globally.

“Viagogo claim this will create a ‘win-win for fans’, but further consolidation in the secondary ticketing market would most likely restrict competition, and further negatively impact fans.

“We hope that regulators will have consumers’ best interests at heart when considering this deal, and consider not only the question of Viagogo’s increased dominance but also whether they can be considered a fit and proper owner.”

VIAGOGO ADVERTS BANNED BY GOOGLE

Posted on 17 July, 201917 July, 2019

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.”

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE TICKETS DO NOT EXIST, PURCHASERS TOLD

Posted on 6 June, 20193 February, 2022

The companies contacted fans less than a week before the match to inform them that their ticket purchases would not be fulfilled by the sellers, who had sold them speculatively – including fans who had already travelled to Madrid. Whilst StubHub has promised fans a full refund, including shipping and service fees, and Viagogo has promised either alternative tickets or €500 compensation, many customers will still be left out of pocket – not least because of the inflated cost of travel and accommodation in Madrid.

Viagogo and StubHub have informed hundreds of buyers of secondary tickets for the Champions League final in Madrid that their tickets – some of which cost upwards of £10,000 – were sold speculatively and do not in fact exist.

StubHub has also offered €1,500 in compensation for each ticket purchased, but it is understood that if fans accept this offer, they will not be able to sue. This year’s Champions League final has seen extraordinarily high levels of ticket touting, according to the Times. Over 8,000 tickets have appeared on secondary ticketing sites with prices far higher than face value, due to extremely high demand.

The scandal has gained coverage from media outlets across Europe, with fans expressing their outrage at such blatant disregard for consumer protection.

Whilst the European Union has recently taken an unprecedented step forward in tackling ticket profiteering – by outlawing the use of bots to bulk-buy tickets as part of the New Deal for Consumers – this latest news demonstrates the continued need for tougher legislation, stronger enforcement and greater consumer awareness in the fight against touts.

UK GOVERNMENT REPORT WARNS CONSUMERS NOT TO BUY FROM VIAGOGO

Posted on 22 March, 201917 July, 2019

In a new report, the UK’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has warned consumers to avoid the secondary ticketing platform Viagogo until it ‘fully complies with consumer law.’

Back in November 2018, the company received a court order demanding that they provide full information about tickets listed on their website, including listing seat numbers. Since then, they have refused to give evidence before the DCMS committee, and are currently facing further legal action from the Competition and Markets Authority.

The report’s key findings include:

Ticket resale for profit drains money out of the music industry – and loses tax revenue for the government
Enforcement of secondary ticketing legislation has seen some successes: StubHub, for example, is now in compliance with CMA and ASA rulings. However, Viagogo is still not compliant
The issue of bot attacks on ticketing sites is rife: Ticketmaster has blocked 20 billion bot attacks across its global platforms in 2017, but current regulations may not address the actual means by which touts harvest tickets. Touts also use multiple computers which are much harder to detect
It is time for companies such as Google to take more responsibility in enforcing AdWords regulations, so that secondary sites are not able to breach these policies when selling fraudulent tickets. The report urges the government to define the responsibilities of media companies such as Google, and enforce sanctions

Michael Dugher, CEO of UK Music, commented:

“They have really listened to the live music industry, which contributes around £1bn a year to the UK economy, and their report is a real wake-up call for everyone who wants to safeguard live music.”

Adam Webb, campaign manager at FanFair Alliance, commented:
“

“If a restaurant poses a risk to public health, we expect inspectors to close it immediately on grounds of consumer protection.

“Unfortunately, such powers of enforcement are seemingly absent when it comes to online ticket touting. So despite the huge consumer harm caused by Viagogo’s practices, and despite the best efforts of the Competition & Markets Authority and other regulators, the site has continued to operate in clear disregard of the law.

“This needs to change. Viagogo is already facing legal proceedings for contempt of court. While that case is pending, there is surely a compelling argument for the website to be temporarily blocked and for platforms like Google to cut off its advertising.”

Click here to read the report in full.