Viagogo has become one of the magnets for anger about the state of the secondary-ticketing market. Now the company is being taken to court by Australian competition authority the ACCC.
It’s accusing Viagogo of failing to do a good enough job of disclosing its fees during the ticket-buying process.
“We allege that Viagogo failed to disclose significant and unavoidable fees upfront in the ticket price, including a 27.6 per cent booking fee for most events and a handling fee,” said ACCC deputy chair Delia Rickard in a statement.
One of the musical examples: the price of two Cat Stevens tickets increasing from $450 to $579.95 once a $125 booking fee and $4.95 handling fees were added. The ACCC has also criticised Viagogo for the way it promotes events when its tickets are running out.
“Viagogo’s statements such as ‘less than 1% of tickets remaining’ created a sense of urgency for people to buy them straight away, when tickets may have still been available through other ticket sources,” said Rickard, adding that the ACCC has received 473 complaints about Viagogo from Australians this year.
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