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Italian ticketers hit with €1.7m in fines

Concluding an investigation launched last October, competition watchdog AGCM has penalised TicketOne and four secondary sites for breaching consumer rights legislation

By Jon Chapple on 18 Apr 2017

Giovanni Pitruzzella, AGCM

AGCM chairman Giovanni Pitruzzella


image © Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato

The Italian Competition Authority (AGCM) has levied fines totalling €1.7 million on five ticket agencies.

AGCM’s investigation dates back to October, when consumer group Altroconsumo asked the quango to look into allegations primary seller TicketOne was passing tickets directly to the secondary market.

It found that while TicketOne, owned by Germany’s CTS Eventim, is “contractually bound to adopt anti-touting measures, [it] did not take appropriate steps to prevent bulk buying through specialist software, nor has it tried to limit multiple purchases or set up a system of ex-post controls to cancel them”.

“Traders did not provide adequate information concerning the tickets, including their face value, the row and the seat”

For violating article 20(2) of the Italian Consumer Code, TicketOne has been fined €1m.

Additionally, four secondary ticketing sites – Viagogo, MyWayTicket, Live Nation’s Seatwave and eBay/StubHub’s Ticketbis – have been hit with a collective €700,000 fine for their failure to provide complete ticket information to customers “concerning several essential elements which potential buyers need to make their transactional decisions”.

“In particular, the traders would not provide adequate information concerning the ticket features, including their face value, the row and the seat, as well as consumer rights in case of the event’s cancellation,” reads a statement from AGCM. “Moreover, the websites failed to clarify that these traders were mere intermediaries on the secondary market.”

 


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