Auckland High Court told 90% of tickets on Viagogo sold by scalpers

February 17, 2023

New Zealand’s Commerce Commission has this week told the High Court in Auckland that scalpers are responsible for 90% of the tickets sold via controversial ticket resale platform Viagogo.

In the High Court seeking a declaration that Viagogo misled consumers by claiming to be an ‘official’ seller of ‘guaranteed’ tickets to events, including concerts, the Commission is continuing action first commenced in 2018, , accusing it of breaching New Zealand’s consumer protection laws.

The expected month-long civil trial, which began on Wednesday, follows the Commission having received ongoing complaints from ticketbuyers who said they had purchased fake tickets for enlarged prices.

While previous legal action undertaken by the Commission against Viagogo saw the Switzerland-based reseller voluntarily agree to make some changes to its practices in New Zealand to avoid a court injunction, the Commission is now pursuing wider legal action, contending in its opening statement in Court stressed that Viagogo is mainly a marketplace for commercial scalpers.

As reported by New Zealand news website Stuff, the Commission’s legal representative, Andy Luck, told the Court “Viagogo admits that over 90% of tickets that are sold in New Zealand are from scalpers; people selling tickets in commercial quantities. It’s a website for ticket scalpers to sell to the general public”.

Summarising issues with Viagogo and the way it promotes and advertises tickets, Luck advised that scalper using the platform often relied on bots to vacuum up tickets from primary sites with some scalpers advertising the sale of tickets they don’t even have yet, something he said Viagogo should be doing more to stop.

Calling for the court to formally declare that the resale platform has breached New Zealand’s Fair Trading Act, the Commission is also asking for the clause that was in Viagogo’s contract, which claimed that it could only be sued by customers in New Zealand through the Swiss Courts, to be formally declared unfair.

The Court head that the commission had received 1,300 complaints or communications about Viagogo, and that between 18^th July 2016 and 31^st October 2022, it resold roughly 323,000 event tickets in New Zealand.

Viagogo denies it misled consumers and that it ever used the world ‘official’ in relation to events. Aaron Lloyd, who was representing Viagogo, said that the company provided a platform for people to sell tickets to people who wanted to by them.

Lloyd advised “Viagogo tells the world it’s a secondary market, and the world knows it.”

In a statement, Viagogo Managing Director, Cris Miller claimed “Viagogo cannot make detailed comment on the legal claims while the matter is before the court. However, we can say that the issues raised by the Commerce Commission relate to the way our ticketing website worked in the past and do not reflect current operations.

“We believe that we have addressed the matters of concern raised by the NZ Commerce Commission and have made it a priority to ensure the Viagogo website is operated transparently and in compliance with consumer expectations and consumer protection legislation. We remain committed to complying with these requirements.

“While it would be easy to prejudge Viagogo in this matter, we ask that you allow the court process to play out and hear the perspective of both sides.”

The Case is due to conclude early next month.

3rd September 2022 - Viagogo under investigation as Perth concert tickets offered for resale at double original price

16th August 2022 - New Zealand Courts advance bankruptcy proceedings against Ticket Rocket owner Matt Davey

19th May 2022 - Federal Court orders Viagogo to pay $7 million penalty for misleading Australian consumers

30th January 2022 - NSW Government urges consumers to avoid purchasing tickets through Viagogo

4th August 2020 - Viagogo defends New Zealand ticket resale practices

3rd August 2020 - iTICKET urges New Zealand ticket buyers to shun Viagogo

5th March 2020 - Viagogo pledges to submit to New Zealand law ahead of Commerce Commission action

20th December 2019 - Melbourne Comedy Festival ticket resales prompts ‘don’t trust Viagogo’ advice

25th November 2019 - Viagogo acquires rival ticket reseller StubHub in US$4 billion deal

8th October 2019 - Google ban sees decline in Viagogo business activity

4th October 2019 - Court decision allows New Zealand Commerce Commission to continue Viagogo legal action

17th July 2019 - Google suspends Viagogo from paid-for global search results

1st July 2019 - Viagogo claims desire to meet with New Zealand’s Commerce Commission

5th April 2019 - Viagogo executives lobby Federal MPs against ticket resale restrictions

20th March 2019 - UK MPs call for Viagogo boycott and changes to ticket scalping laws

12th March 2019 - Viagogo blamed as 200 refused entry to Dunedin concert

4th March 2019 - New Zealand Government to legislate on ticket scalping

19th February 2019 - New Zealand High Court Judge rejects Commerce Commission injunction against Viagogo

11th February 2019 - Concert promoter Michael Chugg says Viagogo is ‘out of control ... f**king thieves’

6th February 2019 - Commerce Commission describes Viagogo as a ‘marketplace for scalpers and fraudsters’ in Auckland High Court

5th February 2019 - Commerce Commission interim injunction against Viagogo set for New Zealand High Court hearing

12th September 2018 - Viagogo responds to calls for Google AdWords service to reject its resales

15th August 2018 - New Zealand Commerce Commission begins court action against Viagogo

5th June 2018 - FIFA makes criminal complaint against ticket reseller Viagogo

30th May 2018 - Ed Sheeran’s strong stance against ticket scalpers has global impact

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