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Viagogo Loses Australian Appeal

Viagogo
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(CelebrityAccess) — A Federal court in Australia dismissed an appeal by Viagogo, which sought to overturn a previous ruling that the ticketing platform made misleading claims on its website about the resale of tickets to sports and live entertainment events.

The latest ruling stems from a 2017 case brought against Viagogo by Australia’s Competition and Consumer Commission, who alleged that Viagogo violated Australian Consumer Law by making false or misleading statements about the price, fees and quantity of tickets available on the platform.

The ACCC also alleged that Viagogo mispresented itself as an official resale platform when no such affiliation existed, or that it was not a primary ticket sales platform.

In the original case, Justice Burley imposed a $7 million penalty, noting that Viagogo’s conduct was deliberate and that some of Viagogo’s misleading claims were made ‘on an industrial scale’.

In dismissing Viagogo’s appeal, the Full Court upheld the earlier court findings, including the financial penalty.

“This case was about bad behavior by an international ticket reseller that deliberately misled thousands of Australian consumers about the price they would have to pay for tickets and falsely represented that those consumers were purchasing tickets from an official site,” ACCC Commissioner Liza Carver said.

In a statement provided to CelebrityAccess, a rep for  Viagogo said:

“viagogo is disappointed with the Federal Court’s ruling, but we remain committed to continuing to provide choice for consumers to access tickets and attend events. 

“The ruling concerns language used in some advertisements and the form of the viagogo website around 5 years ago. It does not reflect our current ticketing platform and the many changes we have made to provide greater transparency for our customers, including providing clearer pricing, ticketing availability and event policy information at all stages of the customer journey.


“Our first priority continues to be providing people with a safe and secure platform to buy or sell tickets to live performance events they can either no longer attend or missed out on at first release. 

“We will continue to focus on providing the best possible experience for customers as we recover from the pandemic, which continues to have a significant impact on the live performance industry around the world.” 

“A transparent and secure resale market is in the interests of everyone, and we will continue working constructively with the ACCC and other regulators to ensure all Australians are protected by the highest possible consumer standards.”

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