Joseto has tickets for the singer Aitana's concert in Madrid. They have cost 183 euros, although on other pages they can be found for just over 30 euros. You do not know if you will be able to enter the venue with those tickets because there is a possibility that the tickets are false and there is no way to claim or get the money back. Joseto is one more victim of the practices of Viagogo , a website of reselling tickets that many confuse with an official store for cultural events. Thousands of users have tried to report this company, calling its business practices a scam and fraud. However, in Spain continues to operate .
The modus operandi reported by customers is practically the same. The story of Joseto is, ultimately, that of many other people. In his case, he entered the page because of the advertising he saw and because Viagogo is very well positioned in Google. In fact, when searching for Aitana's concert, this website appears as one of the first options.
Joseto looked for Aitana's tickets and it wasn't until the end of the purchase process that they showed him the real price. “They put their 'commissions' at the end of everything,” he explained to Hypertextual. You have tried to contact the company to ask for an explanation but it has taken more than 15 days without a response.
Endless complaints
The Organization of Consumers and Users (OCU) has 469 complaints against Viagogo and its score is 6 points, which makes it considered as “very bad”. In addition, there are several campaigns on Change .org to request consequences against the practices of this company. In one of them, they explain the same as Joseto:
“To the mysterious price of the ticket they add, once the purchase process is finished, the management costs, the VAT and an inexplicable cost per reservation”. Alert:
“These additional costs are not noticed in any of the numerous pop-up or movable windows during the purchase process, but appear on the left side of the screen, in font without highlighting and without indicating the cost of these additional concepts.”
Campaign on change.org
Is Viagogo legal in Spain?
One of the most commented examples is that of the U2 concert in 2018 . Tickets were sold for 900 euros when their official price did not reach 100 euros. This was one of the reasons the authorities investigated Viagogo. In a response from the Government of Spain to a senator, who requested information on the actions with the company, it was reported that “it has been found that the website www.viagogo.com has provided its services for the resale of tickets, offering itself as secondary market through the internet “. Is it a legal business?
Spain prohibits street or itinerant sale and resale, but there is no national law that regulates reselling over the internet.
In the same document of July 2020, the Executive informed that the only norm applicable to the distribution of tickets for events is regulated in Royal Decree 2816/1982, of the Police Regulation of Public Shows and Recreational Activities, that prohibits the street or itinerant sale and resale of tickets. There is, therefore, no specific regulation for these practices online. The authorities added, however, that the Sectoral Conference on Culture approved in 2018 the development of a state regulation on the resale of tickets that intends to include the prohibition of telematic and lucrative resale of tickets, “but that has not yet been has materialized “.
The expert lawyer in digital rights Sergio Carrasco clarified to Hipertextual that the resale of tickets is not regulated throughout the Spanish territory. “Some Autonomous Communities absolutely prohibit it and speak specifically of online sales, but not all. There may be territories where these practices are illegal and others where they are not.”
The fine line that crosses Viagogo
For now, as the Government pointed out in its document presented in the Senate, the only resale that is regulated is what is understood as ambulant, “the sale on the street, when you go to a concert and they resell the tickets at the door “Carrasco explained. It is not easy, therefore, to affirm that Viagogo is in breach of Spanish law.
There is, however, a way to protect customers. The Government of Spain pointed to incidents in the civil sphere, powers that do not correspond to the State Security Forces and Bodies (FCSE). That explains why the investigation carried out in 2018 had no consequences:
“It is considered that the actions that could be carried out should be directed towards misleading advertising, unfair competition and breach of contract, all of them in the civil and / or commercial sphere, which is why the FCSE has not acted.”
Government of Spain
The pandemic complicates everything
Photo by george charry on Pexels.com Inflating the price of tickets is one of the problems for users. Another of them is the refund of the amount . During the pandemic, hundreds of concerts and cultural events had to be canceled. In most cases, the amount of the tickets has been returned without problem; The same has not happened in the case of Viagogo. In Change.org campaigns, customers report that they have been waiting for a refund for months . Juan Rubio is having the same problem.
“I bought two tickets for an Izal concert in 2020 and after being delayed by COVID-19 it was canceled in February of this year. As I did not accept the exchange for another event, they told me that it would take months to make the return. And twice They say that they have not been able to make the refund due to problems with my payment method in Google. Problems that only they have to return because to charge it was immediate “, recalled Juan for Hipertextual. He also stressed that communication with the company has been difficult. “Contacting them is desperate. I have been waiting two months for my money to be returned. I will wait another month and then I will take legal measures through a consumer organization,” he said.
That of Miquel F., from Barcelona, is a similar case. Last March he bought two tickets through Viagogo for 92 euros each. When the PDF arrived, he realized that the real price for each one was 40 euros. Days later, they sent him an email advising him that the concert had been canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. You could redeem the amount for a voucher for another event or request a refund, which could take several months. “I think they will never return my money. That doesn't matter to me anymore, really. But it's sad to be left without going to a so desired concert after all this sad pandemic time”, Miquel explained to Hypertextual. It was the first time I had bought on Viagogo; and assures that it will be the last.
Resale, Viagogo's solution Hypertextual contacted the platform to ask about the claims. Regarding cases such as that of Juan Rubio and Miquel, he indicated that due to the pandemic, “we are processing an enormous amount of rescheduling of events around the world and we apologize for the delays . Once Once the status of an event is determined, we inform our users as quickly as possible. ”
On returns, a Viagogo spokesperson explained:
“Tickets for postponed events remain valid and therefore customers are not entitled to a refund under our policy. We understand that changes to events can be disappointing for customers, however they can always be put back on. sell their tickets if they cannot attend the new date. ”
Viagogo spokesperson Likewise, the company's spokesperson reiterated that they take measures to prevent fraudulent sale. In the case of a user selling an invalid ticket, Viagogo promises fines and even the expulsion of the seller from the platform. Despite the fact that the company's spokesperson told Hypertextual that incidents are rare and do not reach 1% of cases, users continue to make claims.
Beyond Spain
In another response from the Government of Spain to the senator who requested information on the Viagogo case, the authorities reported that the General Directorate of Consumption of the Ministry of Consumption had knowledge of claims that did not have had a reply from you or the reply has been unsatisfactory. In addition, he added that they are also aware of the same problem in other countries of the European Union.
“Viagogo has offices in the United States and Switzerland, which makes it difficult to exercise measures that, where appropriate, will be applicable”. The Ministry of Consumption bet on the document to inform the population about these activities, for which they have published reports on this case on its website and in the European Consumer Center in Spain.
“Likewise, and in order to deal in a coordinated manner with claims against Viagogo in the different member states, the European Network for Consumer Protection Cooperation (CPC Network) is analyzing how to address this matter,” concluded the Government.
Italy does not sit idly by As confirmed by the Executive, Viagogo has its headquarters in the United States and its European headquarters in Switzerland; in Delaware and Geneva, respectively. The lawyer Sergio Carrasco admitted that it would be more complicated for them to appear in Spain in the event of a complaint but in the end they would have to go because they are directing their services specifically to Spain. “It is not that the Spanish fall into their services by chance, it is that they are giving me tickets to shows in Spain and they would have to respond to Spanish courts (in case of demand),” he explained.
In Spain, Viagogo has not had to pay a fine for a user complaint so far; at least this has not been made public. In this regard, the Viagogo spokesperson responded to Hipertextual that the company will not comment on the legal procedures in which it is immersed.
Italy has fined Viagogo 3.7 million euros for violating its laws on the purchase and resale of tickets.
However, these cases are also rare because many people prefer to lose the 100 euros, for example, that they have lost for a ticket than to hire a lawyer to start a legal process against Viagogo. In other parts of Europe, however, the company has faced a hefty fine.
In Italy, the courts recently ruled against Viagogo yl or fined 3.7 million euros for violating Italian laws on the purchase and resale of tickets. The decision, which was applauded by consumer organizations, may serve as a watershed after the platform eluded its responsibility so far, as well as that of other similar companies such as Stubhub . Viagogo argues that they act as intermediaries between users, who are reselling the tickets and setting prices. However, the court replied that the platform goes far beyond the storage of information and that promotes optimization and advertising promotion activities of the tickets.
The not easy task of reporting Viagogo
While in Italy the practices of Viagogo had consequences, in Spain it is much more complicated to get to this point because there is no specific legislation that prohibits the resale of tickets online at the national level. To go against the platform is, as the Government of Spain pointed out in the response to the senator, infractions such as misleading advertising, unfair competition and breach of contract.
Both in the Change.org campaign and in publications on social networks and forums, those affected by the company's practices have wondered how to report Viagogo. In addition, they reiterate that the pl ataforma takes advantage of misleading advertising and messages to get attention.
“With threats that tickets are running out and using timers that show how time is running out to complete the purchase,” says the creator of one of the campaigns against the company.
Unclear information
As Joseto, one of the victims of Viagogo, commented for Hypertextual, the page has managed to position itself very well and is one of the first results in Google in a search to buy tickets. Users claim that it is not clearly explained that it is a resale website and they act as if they were an official ticket distributor, such as Ticketmaster.
However, on the website, Viagogo explains: “We are the largest secondary platform for tickets for live events in the world. It is our vendors who set the prices of the tickets you see on our website and these prices can be be higher or lower than its nominal price “.
Viagogo stressed to Hipertextual that the website has enabled banners to let customers know that they are using a “secondary ticketing platform.” It is also reported, the spokesperson continued, that Viagogo does not set ticket prices , “this is done by people who use the platform to resell their tickets.”
On the other hand, it maintains that prices are classified as higher or lower than the value of the price that can be found on official platforms such as Ticketmaster. However, hundreds of users continue to explain their bad experiences with this platform. With campaigns, tweets, publications or opinions in forums.
His word against the many The same happens with the final price of the tickets. Viagogo argues the increase in the fee for taxes, shipping costs.
In addition, what they call “platform maintenance, which allows us to provide an international customer service team that monitors orders from start to finish.”
“It means that orders are covered by Viagogo's guarantee, which ensures that they receive valid tickets in time for their event. In the extremely rare circumstance that a problem arises with a ticket (no more than 1% of tickets sold at all the world in 2019 had any problems), we will find a comparable replacement ticket or provide a full refund. “
Viagogo spokesperson But this does not seem to be the reality experienced by customers who end up buying on Viagogo. Joseto will not know until December if he will be able to access Aitana's concert with the 183 euro tickets he bought on this platform. Juan Rubio is still waiting for the return of an Izal concert that has been canceled. Miquel F. don't even expect to get your money back. And hundreds of other users request action against a company whose practices have had consequences only in Italy. At least for now.
