Ticket reseller Viagogo has been ordered to pay a penalty of $7m for misleading consumers.
In proceedings brought by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), the federal court found the Swiss-based company had made false and misleading representations when reselling tickets to live music and sports events.
It broke the law by claiming it was the “official” ticket seller to particular events and that certain tickets were about to sell out.
It would also add significant fees to the initial price, including a 27.6% booking fee, that were not disclosed until late in the booking process.
In a statement from the ACCC, several examples were listed where Viagogo would advertise a certain price, only for the final price to be significantly higher.
Tickets to the Book of Mormon musical were advertised at $135, but were actually sold for $177.45, including booking and handling fees. Tickets to the Ashes cricket series were also advertised at $330.15, but sold for $426.81 after fees were added.
In imposing the hefty penalty, justice Stephen Barley said the company’s conduct demonstrated a level of deliberateness, describing one category of representations as having been made on “an industrial scale”.
ACCC chair Rod Sims said: “Viagogo’s business practices were unacceptable. Viagogo misled thousands of consumers into buying tickets at inflated prices when they created a false sense of urgency by suggesting tickets were scarce and when they advertised tickets at a lower price by not including unavoidable fees.”
The court also outlined that it saw the penalty as a warning to other companies in the sector that they were subject to Australian Consumer Law.
“Today’s $7m penalty sends a strong signal to businesses like Viagogo conducting business in Australia that they cannot get away with profiting from misleading Australian consumers about the price of the tickets they are selling, or other misleading conduct.”
The federal court ordered an injunction against Viagogo, to reinforce the need for adherence to the consumer law. The court also ordered Viagogo to conduct a compliance program and pay the ACCC’s costs.
A Viagogo spokesperson said the penalty decision covered a period of less than eight weeks.
“Since that time, we have overhauled our platform – a process that included consultation with consumer protection regulators in a number of countries.”
“We are carefully considering today’s decision and for that reason we cannot provide further comment at this time.”
The ACCC took action against Viagogo in August 2017, and in April 2019 the court found Viagogo had misled consumers.
