SIAE in legal blitz against touts, Viagogo

While the new government of Italy has yet to implement its 2017 budget law – and with it the amendment that provides for €180,000 fines for ticket touts – collection society SIAE isn’t hanging around, recently initiating its third court case this year against secondary ticket sellers.

The latest complaint, filed with the Tribunal of Milan on Friday, relates to tickets for Lady Gaga’s recently announced Joanne world tour, which visits Milan’s Mediolanum Forum (12,700-cap.) on 26 September.

Gaetano Blandini, the director-general of SIAE (Società Italiana degli Autori ed Editori, Italian Society of Authors and Publishers), says tickets for the show were being sold on secondary sites for higher than face value “even before the start of the presale on 9 February”. He urges Italian buyers not to purchase secondary-market tickets, and to send evidence of unauthorised resale to [email protected].

On 17 January, SIAE announced it had filed an “urgent petition” with the Civil Court of Rome to address touting of tickets for U2’s shows at the Olympic Stadium next July.

That was followed on 27 January by news it was suing Viagogo for listing tickets for Vasco Rossi’s gig at Modena Park on 1 July – again, before they were even on sale. Rossi last year severed his ties with Live Nation Italy after its managing director, Roberto de Luca, admitted to passing inventory directly to Viagogo.

Switzerland-based Viagogo, meanwhile, is also under fire in the UK, having been accused by FanFair Alliance of “moral repugnance” and “profiteering at the expense of teenage cancer sufferers” by allowing touts to resell tickets for a Teenage Cancer Trust concert at the Royal Albert Hall.

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