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 […]
News and Press
Stay up-to-date with the FanFair Alliance Campaign
CMA publish Viagogo’s court order in full – requirements include a review of unpaid claims from users
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 […]
CMA secures court action against Viagogo – FanFair Alliance reaction
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 […]
ADVERTISING STANDARDS AUTHORITY (ASA) BACKS VIAGOGO OVER TICKET BUYERS
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 […]
APPG on Ticket Abuse, FanFair Alliance & STAR publish letter to Google demanding action on Viagogo search advertising
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 […]
CMA LAUNCHES COURT ACTION AGAINST VIAGOGO: FANFAIR ALLIANCE REACTION
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 announces “bots ban” is coming into force
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 […]
Online Ticket Touting – Google, We *Still* Have A Problem
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 […]
FanFair Alliance Response To ASA Ruling On Viagogo
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 […]
O2 teams up with FanFair Alliance to clamp down on secondary ticketing abuse
Today (May 22nd) O2 have announced they will work in partnership with Fan Fair Alliance to ensure that as many Priority Tickets as possible are going to genuine fans. In 2008, O2 pioneered the pre-sale model with the launch of Priority Tickets allowing customers access to tickets 48 hours before general release. The model works […]