Viagogo has hit back at Kilimanjaro Live boss Stuart Galbraith’s comments during his Artist & Manager Awards acceptance speech, during which he thanked the resale firm for “not following through” with its lawsuit against him.
Viagogo has since responded stating that it intends to move forward with its legal action.
Kilimanjaro and fellow promoter DHP received an AMA in London in recognition of its efforts to tackle touts on Ed Sheeran’s most recent UK tour.
During his speech when accepting the award, Galbraith said Kilimanjaro and DHP saved fans £800,000 and cost Viagogo nearly £2m. He also claimed that touts had avoided attempting to acquire tickets for Sheeran’s next round of shows because they knew Kili would likely cancel them, forcing Viagogo and the tout to refund the buyer.
Galbraith then directly called Viagogo the last “bad actor” in the UK ticketing market. He added: “Thank you for threatening to sue us. Thank you for not following it through.”
Viagogo, however, said that it would go through with its legal action. A spokesperson told Complete Music Update: “Ed’s promoter, Stuart Galbraith of Kilimanjaro, made grandiose claims that he could cancel any tickets listed on Viagogo but he openly admitted in a BBC interview that he cannot. In fact he is now being sued for these and other fraudulent claims he made during the last Ed Sheeran tour.
“The tickets sold on Viagogo’s platform are genuine tickets that have been sold on by the original ticket purchaser in good faith.
“Event organisers sometimes make claims that they will deny entry to people who have purchased resold tickets. These types of entry restrictions are highly unfair and in our view, unenforceable and illegal. Therefore, as with all tickets on our platform, Viagogo customers should feel confident that they will gain entry to the event, and that is why we back every ticket with the Viagogo guarantee.”
As CMU notes, the UK Consumer Rights Act explicitly states that promoters can cancel touted tickets providing the accompanying terms and conditions allow it.
Image: Mohamad_Hassan
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