Ticket resale site Viagogo is about to face further legal action

Back in March, MPs warned people against using Viagogo for buying their tickets, due to the "history of resisting compliance, court orders and parliamentary scrutiny, and flouting consumer law."

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has today announced that they'll be taking further action after "repeated warnings that the site has failed to fully comply with a court order we secured.

We’re going to take further legal action against viagogo.

This follows our repeated warnings that the site has failed to fully comply with a court order we secured.

Read more: https://t.co/Zt166D2BsK pic.twitter.com/aE6hlXm2lI

— Competition & Markets Authority (@CMAgovUK) July 4, 2019

The CMA have listed the reasons for taking further action on the gov.uk site, writing, "Viagogo is still using some misleading ticket availability messages, for example displaying inaccurate claims about the number of tickets left on the site", adding, "the warning Viagogo gives to people that tickets with resale restrictions may not get them in to an event does not meet the requirements of the order."

Other points include not listing seat numbers for events properly on the site, and failing to list the full address of the businesses selling the tickets through their site.

The gov.uk story adds, "In November 2018, the CMA secured a court order that obliged the secondary ticketing site to overhaul the way it operates its UK website and ensure that it complies with consumer protection law. The order required viagogo to implement the necessary changes, in full, by 17 January 2019."

Despite Viagogo having paid over £400,000 in refunds to people who have bought tickets through their site, CMA Chief Executive Officer Andrea Coscelli explains, "It is simply not good enough that Viagogo is continuing to drag its heels by not complying in full with this important court order."

Coscelli adds, "After the CMA repeatedly raised concerns with Viagogo, and also took the time needed to give proper consideration to the findings of an independent review of Viagogo’s compliance, we are very concerned that it still hasn’t done what it was ordered to do. We are now taking the next step in legal action to ask a court to find Viagogo in contempt."