Complaints surrounding ticketing in Portugal have soared by more than 250% compared to this time last year, according to Portal da Queixa (complaint portal). The project was created by a technological start-up, the Consumers Trust in Portugal. It analysed complaints addressed to online ticket offices and event production companies. Since the beginning of the year …
Investigation finds most Viagogo tickets listed by same three people
An investigation from ITV News has found that just three people are responsible for over two thirds of festival and outdoor events tickets listed on resale site, Viagogo. The research found that less than 10% of the listings were from ordinary consumers, with the rest being sold by ‘traders’ or resale businesses. Research was carried …
StubHub announces closure of San Francisco and Shanghai offices
StubHub has announced that it will be winding up its San Fransisco and Shanghai offices and will be laying off the majority of the employees based in these locations. The ticket resale platform said that it would be focusing on building its new offices in new York and Los Angeles, and using these locations as …
Viagogo fined €23.5m by Italian communications regulatory authority
Ticketing resale platform Viagogo has been fined €23.5m (£20m/$25m) by Italy’s communications regulatory authority AGCOM for breaking the country’s rules on secondary ticketing. Viagogo was given seven days to remove the illegal listings from its site by AGCOM (Autorità per le Garanzie nelle Comunicazioni). The decision was made by AGCOM at a council meeting on …
Viagogo loses A$7m appeal – TheTicketingBusiness News
Secondary ticket platform Viagogo will have to pay a A$7m (£4m/$5m/€4.7m) fine for misleading customers when it resold concert and sports tickets five years ago, after losing an appeal against a prior court decision in Australia. The Full Court of the Federal Court dismissed Viagogo’s appeal of a 2019 decision which found that the company …
Eurovision fans miss out on finals after tix failure
Eurovision fans were left disappointed after tickets they’d purchased to watch Saturday’s final never arrived. According to Variety, a number of fans purchased tickets for the Eurovision final in Turin, Italy (pictured), from resale site Viagogo. However, as it got closer to the event, the tickets failed to arrived before customers received an email to …
Viagogo appoints GVS as strategic advisors
Secondary ticketing platform Viagogo has appointed Global Venue Services (GVS) as strategic advisors in the UK. GVS, a management consulting and investment services business, was launched in 2020 by chair Simon Bazalgette and chief executive Paul Fisher. Bazalgette and Fisher have experience within the sports and music industries, including time at The Jockey Club, a …
FanFair Alliance continues to call out UK CMA Viagogo/StubHub approval
It has been six months since the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) approved Viagogo’s takeover of StubHub. It was agreed that for the deal to go ahead, the latter had to sell off its international business, which was snapped up by a venture capital group – Digital Fuel LLC. The CMA approved the deal …
StubHub entertains public listing idea
StubHub Holdings, which operates ticket resale platforms StubHub and Viagogo, is considering the idea of going public via a direct listing, according to media reports. Bloomberg reports that StubHub Holdings has filed paperwork with the US Securities and Exchanges Commission to pursue a direct listing. According to the report, the group is working with advisers …
2021 in review – January
The New Year kicked off with news of mergers, acquisitions and regulatory headwinds as vaccination roll-outs accelerated in key markets… Deutsche Entertainment AG (DEAG), which owns MyTicket, revealed in January that it planned to delist from the Frankfurt Stock Exchange after securing support of the entertainment firm’s largest single shareholder. Formula 1 owner Liberty Media, …