Viagogo managing director Cris Miller has apologised publicly for the resale company’s failure to attend a Parliamentary hearing on ticketing.
Miller admitted in an interview with ITV News that it was “clearly a mistake” to miss a Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee inquiry back in March 2017. MPs were furious that the company was not represented at the hearing into the secondary ticketing market, and Miller said it was evidence the company was “immature” at the time.
He told ITV News: “Our focus as a business is that we were growing internationally and we were growing into the businesses as a younger business at the time and quite frankly we were simply naive and immature and got that wrong.
“We didn’t really understand and appreciate the importance of what that DCMS inquiry was all about, looking back on it, it was clearly a mistake and we apologise for it.”
Miller said the company failed to attend a second hearing a year later because of “legal preclusions”.
Miller, who has worked for Viagogo since it was founded in 2006, defended the resale industry following criticism relating to inflated ticket prices at the weekend’s UEFA Champions League final between Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur.
It has been reported that some fans paid up to €10,000 per ticket from resellers for the Madrid match, but Miller defended the right of consumers to sell their property for a price of their choosing.
He told ITV: “Why should we stop that person from doing that. There is a market and that’s what we’re providing. We’re providing the market place, we don’t dictate the prices. We just allow the market to take place. We step in the middle to make sure everything goes okay.
“Without the resell market, without Viagogo, most fans would have no opportunity to get into the Champions League final.”
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