Viagogo resale compensation: could you get a refund?

Secondary ticketing website Viagogo may be forced to repay millions of pounds to its customers following a legal victory by the UK competition watchdog.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) launched a legal action in August after people who had bought tickets from the reselling giant reported that they could not get into events and were being denied refunds, The Times reports. Viagogo was accused of breaking consumer protection law by failing to provide customers with enough information about what they were buying and the identity of the third-party sellers, leading to inflated prices and disappointed concertgoers being turned away from events that do not accept resold tickets.

This week the High Court found in favour of the regulatory body, meaning Viagogo will now have to warn buyers if there is a risk that their ticket may be rejected, and to publish the seat number and face value of tickets, says the BBC.

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Many ticket touts have been using the Viagogo platform to resell tickets purchased in bulk at vastly inflated prices, at the expense of genuine fans.

But under the new ruling, the company will have to identity the seller and whether they are a professional tout, rather than a fan who can no longer attend a show and wants to recoup the face value of the ticket.

The Guardian notes that the ruling is also “understood to include a requirement that the company funds an independent review of outstanding refund claims submitted since January 2016”.

The newspaper suggests that any customers who may be entitled to a refund for invalid tickets should wait to be contacted by Viagogo.

The company is also being forced to pay for a third party to monitor its overall compliance with the court order, including the refund investigation.

Applauding the ruling, Alex Neill of consuming group Which? said: “It’s right that Viagogo is being forced to make these changes after we repeatedly exposed the company as a rogue operator for flouting consumer law.

“It is shocking, however, that the company had to be dragged through the courts to ensure music and sports fans are given the information they are entitled to when buying tickets.”