By Rebecca Styles
Research Lead | Hautū Rangahau
The Commerce Commission has won a long-winded High Court battle against the ticket reseller Viagogo for breaches of the Fair Trading Act.
Viagogo's website / www.viagogo.com/nz
The Commission successfully argued Viagogo had breached the Fair Trading Act by misleading customers about its ticket guarantee, the demand for tickets, ticket prices and additional fees.
Viagogo had also claimed it was an authorised ticket seller rather than being upfront about its website being a resale platform.
Fair Trading general manager, Vanessa Horne, said Viagogo was one of the most complained about traders, as many people bought tickets that weren’t valid for admission to a show.
“The Commission is aware of a large number of reports from consumers who had purchased event tickets from Viagogo, booked flights and travel to attend the event, only to be turned away at the entrance when they found out for the first time that their tickets weren't authentic. This resulted in significant distress and financial impacts for consumers.”
During the Commission’s legal action there was a period where Viagogo challenged efforts to hold it accountable to New Zealand laws.
However, the win is an example of the Commission being able to pursue a large global entity and hold them to account on behalf of New Zealand consumers.
The Commission began investigating Viagogo in 2017 after a raft of complaints, including one from us at Consumer NZ.
The Commission started court proceedings in the High Court the following year.
Viagogo has appealed the judgement however the Commission says it will be “strongly defended.”
Consumer welcomes win against Viagogo
In 2017, we called on the Commerce Commission to take action against Viagogo and other ticket resellers.
Working with the Australian consumer group Choice, we investigated ticket resellers and found tickets bought from resellers could be marked-up by more than 500%.
Over half of respondents to our research were also charged extra fees on top of the ticket price.
While 11% of purchasers paid for tickets that never arrived and 8% ended up with fake tickets. Of those who could get inside the venue, some found the seat wasn’t what they paid for.
We also found Viagogo claimed on its website that it was an “official” seller of tickets, rather than a reseller website. Our research found that 85% of people who bought tickets for a New Zealand event were unaware they bought tickets from a reseller.
Omitting that information could lead to consumers believing the reseller was the official ticket seller for the event and feel pressured to buy from limited ticket availability.
We also received complaints from people who were over-charged on their credit card.
It's time to stop ticket reselling rip-offs
We regularly receive complaints about ticket resellers and their hugely inflated prices. But sky-high markups are not the only problem with these ticket resale sites.
