The Italian antitrust authority has expanded its consumer rights probe into Serie A clubs and their ticketing practices to include Brescia Calcio and Unione Sportiva Lecce.
The l’Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato (AGCM) will look into the “vexatious” contract terms in the sale of season tickets and individual match tickets for the two clubs.
The investigation follows the failure of the clubs to remove clauses that exclude consumer rights to obtain a refund when stadiums are closed or matches postponed. The conditions in questions also exempt clubs from paying damages in cases where the postponement of a match has been the direct responsibility of the club.
These clauses could be “vexatious” pursuant to Italy’s Consumer Code, because, excluding or limiting the liability of the football clubs, “it would lead to a significant imbalance for consumers in contractual services.”
In addition, the regulator opened investigations into nine other clubs in January that failed to respond to the authority’s request to modify its ticketing clauses on May 8, 2019. Those clubs are AC Milan, Atalanta, Cagliari, Genoa, Inter Milan, Juventus, Lazio, Roma and Udinese.
AGCM scrapped a probe into Bologna and Parma after the clubs agreed to change some of their terms.
Image: Freddyballo
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