Simple solution. 

Don't buy your tickets from anyone except the official ticket handler. 

xpd:

 

Simple solution. 

 

Don't buy your tickets from anyone except the official ticket handler. 

 

 

 

You know it, I know it. But it seems the OMG EVENT I MUST SEE AT ALL COST population that sometimes believes their computers are breaking the internet with viruses when some random calls up still don't

Just received:

 

The Commerce Commission is to commence civil proceedings in the High Court against Switzerland-based ticket resale website Viagogo.

The proceedings will be under the Fair Trading Act, and the Commission will be seeking:

 

• declarations that Viagogo has breached the Act
• an injunction restraining it from further breaches
• corrective advertising orders.

 
The Commission will claim that Viagogo made false or misleading representations:

 

• that it was an “official” seller, when it was not
• that tickets were limited or about to sell out
• that consumers were “guaranteed” to receive valid tickets for their event
• about the price of tickets, when its ‘headline’ prices were unobtainable because of the addition of GST and various fees.

 
The Commission will also allege that Viagogo’s contract includes an unfair contract term. The term states that all disputes brought by a consumer must be heard in Swiss courts under Swiss law, but Viagogo can choose to take court action against consumers in the consumer's own country.

The Commerce Commission now joins a growing group of international enforcement agencies who are bringing similar cases against Viagogo. Viagogo faces court or enforcement action in Switzerland, Germany, France, Spain, the UK and Australia. It has been fined in Italy and sued by FIFA. Since the beginning of 2017 the Commission has received more than 400 complaints about Viagogo, making it the most complained-about trader in that period.

“We acknowledge that this has been a longstanding investigation, and in large measure that is because of the complexity of pursuing a case against an online trader based offshore. We are pleased to have progressed matters to the point where we are now able to launch proceedings,” said Stuart Wallace, the Commission’s Head of Consumer.

As the matter will be before the Court, the Commission will make no further comment at this time.

 

freitasm:

 

Just received:

 

This will be a very interesting case if it ever makes it to court, as Viagogo have absolutely no legal prescience in NZ

The website is registered to a Swiss company, which I am guessing is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Delaware parent.....

I'm guessing its more about making a statement than actually expecting to get a judgement,,,

wellygary:

 

This will be a very interesting case if it ever makes it to court, as Viagogo have absolutely no legal prescience in NZ

 

The website is registered to a Swiss company, which I am guessing is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Delaware parent.....

 

I'm guessing its more about making a statement than actually expecting to get a judgement,,,

 

Valve tried arguing that in Australia too. The ACCC didn't have a bar of it, and funnily enough Steam now complies with Australian Consumer Law.

Kyanar:

 

wellygary:

 

This will be a very interesting case if it ever makes it to court, as Viagogo have absolutely no legal prescience in NZ

 

The website is registered to a Swiss company, which I am guessing is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Delaware parent.....

 

I'm guessing its more about making a statement than actually expecting to get a judgement,,,

 

 

Valve tried arguing that in Australia too. The ACCC didn't have a bar of it, and funnily enough Steam now complies with Australian Consumer Law.

 

Valve had millions of dollars in servers and infrastructure in Australia and engaged Australian companies in 3rd party agreements so it could hardly argue there was 'no presence' in Australia. I'm betting Viagogo get as close to NZ as the Sydney CloudFlare node.

Aredwood: The courts could just serve an attachment order on the credit card companies or banks. As a means of enforcing payment of any fines.

Viagogo would have to either pay up, or stop accepting NZ / AUS credit cards. And the card companies might decide that Viagogo is too risky, and stop accepting any credit cards for them.

Not much they could do then. As only 3 or so companies control almost all credit cards.

The card networks themselves are pretty outside the jurisdiction of NZ courts (at least, as out of jurisdiction as Viagogo is anyway) - they aren't NZ registered, and don't really have a physical presence. Pretty sure both Visa and MasterCard operate out of Singapore for the APAC region, and Amex only operate a sales entity in NZ. Regardless of that, the card networks have no technical capability to divert part of a transaction and would not be amenable to building such a capability - the transaction is totally under the control of the issuer and acquirer.

Viagogo's merchant acquirer is likely to be domiciled in their own home country rather than NZ as well, but if they have NZ operations they could be a target, same as if they have a NZ based acquiring partner (in order to dodge foreign currency fees for their customers).

Contrary to popular belief, it would be next to impossible to attach an order to credit card transactions, which is why I roll my eyes whenever someone suggests it as a viable option for the GST problem.

xpd:

Simple solution. 

Don't buy your tickets from anyone except the official ticket handler. 

 

Viagogo agrees to gives more information about seller, ticket prices/seats - in the UK.

Even with this change I'd still not buy anything from them.

I just handled (and won) a dispute against Viagogo on behalf of someone else who believed they were an official seller.

To all those who say it's the buyers fault and they should be more careful, I encourage you to take a look at the Google ads and content of the Viagogo Website for yourself. The site is designed to be willfully misleading, making representations regarding the scarcity and demand for tickets that are blatantly untrue. Try searching for tickets, you will see a long delay while a 'search' takes place, messages giving you explicit numbers of tickets available, claims events are sold out and pop-ups saying tickets have just sold (unlikely, and seen on repeat searches). You will then only have a few minutes to secure your tickets. All tactics designed to create a sense of urgency. Further, everything is displayed in NZ dollars, not the actual currency transaction, and no fees are disclosed, right until the very end.

The Commerce Commission is hardly going to take action against a company, especially an overseas one, unless there are clear breaches of NZ consumer law. The fact that they are doing so in Viagogo's case should be sufficient evidence that it's deceptive practices, not inattentive consumers that are the issue here.

quickymart: http://nzh.tw/12167747

To me it seems as if this woman doesn't follow stories in the media, as she would have known about the multitude of complaints against Viagogo if she did.

One has to wonder why is it that the people who don't appear to follow the media, suddenly turn to the media when something goes wrong?

SirHumphreyAppleby:

 

To all those who say it's the buyers fault and they should be more careful, I encourage you to take a look at the Google ads and content of the Viagogo Website for yourself. The site is designed to be willfully misleading, making representations regarding the scarcity and demand for tickets that are blatantly untrue. Try searching for tickets, you will see a long delay while a 'search' takes place, messages giving you explicit numbers of tickets available, claims events are sold out and pop-ups saying tickets have just sold (unlikely, and seen on repeat searches). You will then only have a few minutes to secure your tickets. All tactics designed to create a sense of urgency. Further, everything is displayed in NZ dollars, not the actual currency transaction, and no fees are disclosed, right until the very end.

 

I 'fell' for this the other day - wasn't buying tickets but just wanted to see what the cost was to Nanogirl's show; after going through the whole palaver detailed above I was somewhat shocked to note the tickets were $120! It was only at that point I realised I'd clicked on the Google ad for Viagogo. (Going via the official source showed tickets were $30.)

kiwiharry:

 

quickymart: http://nzh.tw/12167747

To me it seems as if this woman doesn't follow stories in the media, as she would have known about the multitude of complaints against Viagogo if she did.

 

One has to wonder why is it that the people who don't appear to follow the media, suddenly turn to the media when something goes wrong?

Even worse, she is apparently a Marketing Manager. Surely of all people a marketing manager would be far more savvy about of the sales tactics used to persuade consumers to buy products, and therefore be more immune to the false pressure? Knowing this is their job after all - ?!