Viagogo
Italian Regulator Fines Viagogo 23M Euros for Inflating Ticket Prices to Maneskin, Dua Lipa Concerts
LONDON —Italy’s communications regulator has fined Viagogo 23.5 million euros ($24.8 million) for selling tickets to concerts by rock and pop stars like Maneskin, Pearl Jam and Dua Lipa at vastly inflated rates, thereby violating the country’s strict rules around the resale of concert tickets. Following a board meeting on June 23, Autorità per le Garanzie nelle Comunicazioni (AGCOM), a government regulator that oversees Italy’s telecommunications, audio visual and publishing industries, also ordered the secondary ticketing company to remove all “illegal content” listed on its platform within seven days. The fine follows an investigation by AGCOM and Italy’s financial crime enforcement agency, the Guardia di Finanza, which looked at tickets for 131 events listed on www.viagogo.it. As well a...
StubHub Clears Final Hurdle of Viagogo Merger With Sale of Non-U.S. Assets
The sale ends a period of government-imposed silence between the two firms, which were allowed to communicate while the agreement worked its ways through the U.K. regulator system. “We are finally allowed to collaborate and begin planning the integration between the two companies,” says Jill Krimmel, StubHub’s interim president who said she will stay on as president once the integration is complete. That process couldn’t begin until the sale of StubHub’s international business was completed. It’s unclear how much Digital Fuel Capital paid for the international assets, which include 23 companies and limited liability corporations held by StubHub including its branded marketplaces in the U.K., Germany, Taiwan and parts of Europe through its Luxembourg ...
Australia’s Live Industry Welcomes Fine for Viagogo
In one example, the ACCC said the total price for two Cat Stevens (aka Yusuf Islam) tickets was found to increase from A$450.00 ($357) to A$579.95 ($460), a rise of 29%, when the A$125 ($100) booking and A$4.95 ($4) handling fees were added. Justice Burley described one category of representations as having been made on “an industrial scale”. The company’s business practices were “unacceptable,” says ACCC Chair Rod Sims. “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 federal court’s stiff penalty is meant as a warning to other companies that breached consumer protections. The court also or...
