As of this morning, secondary ticketing website viagogo was required to implement substantial changes to its business practices following a court order served in November 2018. This follows an important and ongoing investigation into the secondary ticketing market by the Competition & Markets Authority (CMA). The legally-binding document demanded that viagogo “overhaul” the way it does business and comply with a wide range of […]
The FanFair Alliance campaign was established in July 2016 to fight back against “industrial-scale online ticket touting” – and over the past 12 months we’ve seen monumental changes to the UK’s “secondary ticketing” landscape. A concerted effort from Government, from the Competition & Markets Authority (CMA), National Trading Standards (NTS), and the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has […]
Today, the Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) have published in full Viagogo’s court order. It is a substantial document. Viagogo must comply with the contents by 17th January 2019. Non-compliance might result in fines, seizure of assets – or for Viagogo’s directors to be imprisoned. It is certainly not an “agreement”, as Viagogo suggested in […]
FanFair Alliance, the music industry campaign against industrial-scale online ticket touting, has today responded to news that the Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) has secured a court order against ticket resale website viagogo.co.uk, which compels it to overhaul its business practices. Full details can be founded here. According to the CMA, the order must be complied with by mid-January […]
Today, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has rejected a long-running complaint by FanFair Alliance that Google adverts employed by the secondary ticketing website Viagogo could mislead consumers. The decision reverses a draft ruling sent to FanFair in June 2018, and can be seen here. We have submitted an appeal to the ASA’s Independent Reviewer, urging that […]
The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Ticket Abuse, FanFair Alliance and Society of Ticket Agents & Retailers (STAR) have published a joint letter sent to Google last week, demanding action to stop Viagogo‘s misleading search advertising. The letter has received extensive backing from music, theatre and sports organisations, and is counter-signed by politicians from all main political […]
This morning, the Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) announced they have issued court proceedings against Viagogo over concerns it is breaking consumer protection law. Full detail here. Reacting to this news, Adam Webb, Campaign Manager, FanFair Alliance said: “FanFair Alliance warmly welcomes today’s announcement by the Competition & Markets Authority, as will the countless consumer victims of […]
Government has announced that legislation to penalise touts who use automated software to bulk-buy tickets comes into effect as of today. The announcement has been welcomed by FanFair Alliance as another important step towards recalibrating the ticket resale market, ensuring it works for consumers and not the self-styled “brokers” and “power sellers” who dominate sites […]
In July 2017, FanFair Alliance published research to show how Viagogo, StubHub and Get Me In! could be misleading live music audiences through their use of pay-per-click Google advertising. By paying to dominate search results for live music events – even when those events were not sold out – we felt so-called secondary ticketing sites […]
Today, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), has announced that they are referring viagogo AG to National Trading Standards for failure to make changes to misleading pricing information on their website. See here for full detail. Alongside this referral, the ASA’s Compliance team will also implement concurrent sanctions – including working with Google on non-compliant viagogo […]