Viagogo Forced To Pay $7m Penalty After Losing Court Case

Viagogo will be forced to pay a $7 million penalty for misleading consumers after the Full Federal Court today threw out an appeal from the controversial ticket reseller.

Back in 2019, the Federal Court found that Viagogo had made misleading claims on its website relating to the reselling of tickets to live music and other events and imposed the seven-figure fine.

At the time it was stated that the company had breached Australian Consumer Law and Justice Burley said that Viagogo’s conduct was deliberate and that some of its misleading claims were made ‘on an industrial scale’.

The original proceedings were brought forth by the ACCC, with the Federal Court finding that Viagogo had falsely represented that it was the ‘official’ seller of tickets to particular events.

Additionally, the Viagogo website from 1 May 2017 to 26 June 2017 “drew consumers in with a headline price but failed to sufficiently disclose additional fees or specify a single price for tickets, including a 27.6 per cent booking fee which applied to most tickets”, as noted by the ACCC.

“This case was about bad behaviour by an international ticket reseller that deliberately misled thousands of Australian consumers about the price they would have to pay for tickets and falsely represented that those consumers were purchasing tickets from an official site,” ACCC Commissioner Liza Carver said.

“Viagogo misled music lovers, sporting fans and other consumers who were hoping to get tickets to a special event. Consumers were drawn in by a headline price and were often unaware of the significant fees charged by Viagogo until very late in the booking process when they were already invested in attending the event.”

In a statement provided to The Music, Viagogo said it was “disappointed with the Federal Court’s ruling” but remained “committed to continuing to provide choice for consumers to access tickets and attend events”.

“The ruling concerns language used in some advertisements and the form of the Viagogo website around five years ago,” a Viagogo spokesperson said.

“It does not reflect our current ticketing platform and the many changes we have made to provide greater transparency for our customers, including providing clearer pricing, ticketing availability and event policy information at all stages of the customer journey.

“Our first priority continues to be providing people with a safe and secure platform to buy or sell tickets to live performance events they can either no longer attend or missed out on at first release.

“We will continue to focus on providing the best possible experience for customers as we recover from the pandemic, which continues to have a significant impact on the live performance industry around the world.

“A transparent and secure resale market is in the interests of everyone, and we will continue working constructively with the ACCC and other regulators to ensure all Australians are protected by the highest possible consumer standards.”

Last July, NSW Fair Trading announced it was officially investigating Viagogo following a spike in consumer complaints.

The investigation follows a watershed moment back in 2018 when NSW Fair Trading made ticket scalping illegal.

Also last year, Tim Minchincalled out Viagogo for reselling tickets to his UK tour at inflated prices. 

“NEVER buy tickets from Viagogo or other resale sites,” he stated via Twitter.

“They are cheating scumbags. Scalpers. Petty grifters. They buy tickets in bulk to deliberately increase scarcity, then sell them at hugely inflated prices.”