“We did briefly see a drop off in complaints but then we saw a spike at the end of 2019. When the pandemic hit complaints obviously dropped off again as events were not able to go ahead. However now that events are back on the agenda, we have seen a spike again and despite Viagogo being explicitly warned and receiving a $7 million fine from the ACCC in 2020, they continue to flout the rules.
Ticket reseller Viagogo are being investigated by NSW Fair Trading
Viagogo are being investigated after seeing a spike in complaints against them since the restart of ticketed events.
Viagogo are being investigated after seeing a spike in complaints against them since the restart of ticketed events.
As per Music Feeds, Viagogo are now being investigated by NSW's consumer watchdog, Fair Trading. In just the first half of 2021, Fair Trading received 36 complaints related to Viagogo and the accusations were varied. 16 of the complaints were due to ticket scalping, 11 were because of cancelled events that were not refunded, five were in relation to misleading customers into thinking they were the authorised seller, three for tickets not arriving on time, and one for not providing advice on age restrictions for a certain event.
It's especially tough given how much the arts industry is struggling right now after the COVID-19 pandemic. Fair Trading's Commissioner Rose Webb stressed how disappointing Viagogo's continued unreliability was to see. “It was big news in 2018 when NSW Fair Trading made ticket scalping illegal by making it an offence for ticket resellers such as Viagogo to charge more than 10% extra on the original ticket price and transactions costs,” Webb explained.
THE MUSIC NETWORK NEWSLETTER
Reporting from inside the Australian music business since '94.
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