The New Zealand Commerce Commission is taking Viagogo to court claiming it breached the Fair Trading Act.
The Commission is arguing that Viagogo stated it is an official seller but is actually a resale site. It also contends that it made misleading claims about the availability of tickets, and advertised incorrect pricing for tickets.
It hopes to get declarations that Viagogo has breached the Act and an injunction stopping it from committing further breaches.
According to RadioNZ, the Commission has received more than 400 complaints against the Switzerland-based resale platform, mainly concerning the selling of fake tickets.
Consumer NZ chief executive Sue Chetwin said she was pleased the Commission was taking Viagogo on.
“Their practices are ruthless and possibly fraudulent, so we think it’s great,” she said.
Consumer NZ has previously investigated Viagogo, and Chetwin described the company as “devious”.
“Google has said they’re not allowed to call themselves an official ticketing site, but if you search any event or sports game – they come up so you think you’re buying through a ticketing site,” she said.
“They’re based in Switzerland and they are very shadowy and difficult to deal with – we’ve never been able to get hold of them… They don’t have those sort of activities because they’re trying to be an honest business.”
She said that while a win for the Commission may not stop Viagogo from trading in New Zealand, it would make it harder for consumers to be ripped off by them.
“What it will do is make them trade more honestly so that when they have the price of a ticket – then that will actually be the price you pay for it and they will have to show that they’ve got real tickets – as opposed to fraudulent tickets or children’s tickets masquerading as adult tickets,” Chetwin said.
“I think this will give consumers reassurance that if they buy tickets through Viagogo they’ll be able to get into the event and they’re paying the price which they saw advertised on the site.”
Viagogo faces similar court action in several countries including the UK and Australia.
Image: Pxhere
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