State ministers warn Aussie concert-goers about using Viagogo

In a concerted effort, Australian state ministers yesterday issued official warnings against using online ticket reseller Viagogo, saying that complaints were escalating this year.

Complaints included hidden fees, no refunds if an event was cancelled, and delayed delivery of tickets.

According to NSW Better Regulation Minister Matt Kean, NSW Fair Trading received 187 consumer complaints and 237 inquiries about the company which is based in Geneva, Switzerland.

The Minister added that Fair Trading estimated that 600 NSW concert and sports goers “have been ripped off at a cost of almost $130,000”.

Queensland Office of Fair Trading has received 49 complaints, 43 of these in the last 12 months, Queensland’s Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath said.

She added that the site was already advertising Commonwealth Games tickets which have not yet been issued.

So far, Viagogo refused to engage with the Office of Fair Trading over the complaints.

“Until such time as Viagogo improves its business practices, I urge consumers to think twice before dealing with them,” the Attorney-General said.

“Viagogo’s conduct to date shows they have little interest in resolving consumer complaints and are unwilling to act in good faith if something goes wrong.

Western Australia registered 45 complains this year, Acting Consumer Protection Commissioner David Hillyard said. There were nine for the whole of 2016.

In one venue alone, Perth Arena, 354 were turned away from 14 events in the past six months for invalid tickets. 245 of these were from Viagogo.

Fair Trading tried unsuccessfully to contact Viagogo 194 times until it was threatened with a public warning.

“Viagogo says it will be more responsive in future; however, consumers should read all conditions carefully, and make credit card payments so they can claim a charge back if necessary,”Minister Kean said.

“Until Viagogo adopts a more cooperative and professional approach, consumers are urged to be cautious using their website, and always check for available event tickets through an authorised primary ticket seller.”

He repeated his earlier pledge to look more closely at the ticket scalping issue and to ban the use of the bots software.

The states made their move on the weekend as the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is said to be finalising its investigation into the site.

The ACCC began its inquiries after Choice magazine passed on data of its investigation in March.

These included a 514% price mark up for a Justin Bieber show in Brisbane. Queensland law only allows a 10% mark-up for tickets sold at Stadium Queensland venues, with fines of $2,438 for sellers and $609.50 for buyers.

Choice also alleged that ViaGogo and Ticketmaster Resale were taking between 21% to 28% of each sale in fees and charges.

Music industry figures as Harley Evans, Managing Director and owner of moshtix and The Ticket Group, have warned that high resale ticket prices have affected consumer spending on-site, including merchandise and bar sales.

Live Performance Australia is currently developing a code of practice for the secondary ticket market.

Senator Nick Xenophon pushed this year to have the law changed to cap resale tickets at 10%.

The Federal Government has not been responsive.