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 […]
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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 […]
FanFair Alliance comment: CMA announce pledge by ticket resale sites to change their practices
Today, the Competition & Markets Authority (CMA), have announced that 3 of the UK’s biggest ticket resale platforms – StubHub, GET ME IN! and Seatwave – have formally committed to ensuring better information will be given about tickets being resold through their platforms. The sites will make clear: – whether there is a risk a customer […]
Government to tackle touts who bulk harvest tickets – new legislation to be introduced next week
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport has revealed that the new legislation to tackle bulk-harvesting of tickets by dedicated touts will be laid before Parliament this week. Once activated, it would mean those using “automated software” to bulk-buy tickets for resale on secondary ticketing sites at hugely inflated prices will face an unlimited […]
Consumer Rights Act 2015: new and updated rules come into force today
Government has today announced that updates to the Consumer Rights Act 2015 will come into force today, whilst also clarifying to secondary ticketing websites – if they needed any more clarification – of their legal obligations. The key development is around the concept of a ‘Unique Ticket Number’ or UTN. If an event organiser specifies […]