Ticket reseller Viagogo, one of the most complained about companies in the world, cops a $7 million fine for misleading
Posted: Thu Sep 25, 2025 10:21 am
Ticket reseller Viagogo AG has been fined $7 million for making false or misleading representations when reselling events tickets in a Federal Court legal action brought by consumer watchdog the ACCC.
The Australian Consumer and Competition
Commission (ACCC) took on the Swiss-based cayman islands cell phone database ticket reseller in 2017 for price-gouging consumers by failing to disclose substantial fees. The case didn’t address claims that the company sells fake ticket. Hundreds of people are routinely denied entry to events after buying tickets from Viagogo.
The Court found last that
Viagogo made false or misleading representations to consumers that it was the ‘official’ seller of tickets to particular events, that certain tickets were scarce, and that consumers could purchase tickets for a particular price when this was not the case because significant fees, such as a 27.6% booking fee, were not disclosed until late in the booking process.
Viagogo’s site often says “less than 1% of tickets remaining” to create a sense of urgency for people to buy, when tickets may have still been available through other ticket sources
The contraventions resulted in two fines of $2.5 million, one of $1.5 million, and one of $500,000 for each of the breaches for a total of $7 million.
In a damning assessment of the company, Justice Stephen Burley, said in his judgment that he was not satisfied that confidential figures submitted to the court by Viagogo “represents an accurate indication of profit earned”.
He described Viagogo’s responses as giving it “the appearance of being a company that is indifferent to the interests of Australian consumers and which prefers to elevate its own profit motives above those interests, even when on notice of the potential for harm being done”.
Justice Burley described the misrepresentations as
serious or very serious, and considered the conduct demonstrated a level of deliberateness, with one category of representations as having been made on “an industrial scale”.
“There is no dispute that the conduct of Viagogo was deliberate in the sense that the design and implementation of the Viagogo ad and the Viagogo Australian website were deliberate and not inadvertent,” he said.
The consumer watchdog says it found price increases of 29% to 31% when it looked at the site.
The Australian Consumer and Competition
Commission (ACCC) took on the Swiss-based cayman islands cell phone database ticket reseller in 2017 for price-gouging consumers by failing to disclose substantial fees. The case didn’t address claims that the company sells fake ticket. Hundreds of people are routinely denied entry to events after buying tickets from Viagogo.
The Court found last that
Viagogo made false or misleading representations to consumers that it was the ‘official’ seller of tickets to particular events, that certain tickets were scarce, and that consumers could purchase tickets for a particular price when this was not the case because significant fees, such as a 27.6% booking fee, were not disclosed until late in the booking process.
Viagogo’s site often says “less than 1% of tickets remaining” to create a sense of urgency for people to buy, when tickets may have still been available through other ticket sources
The contraventions resulted in two fines of $2.5 million, one of $1.5 million, and one of $500,000 for each of the breaches for a total of $7 million.
In a damning assessment of the company, Justice Stephen Burley, said in his judgment that he was not satisfied that confidential figures submitted to the court by Viagogo “represents an accurate indication of profit earned”.
He described Viagogo’s responses as giving it “the appearance of being a company that is indifferent to the interests of Australian consumers and which prefers to elevate its own profit motives above those interests, even when on notice of the potential for harm being done”.
Justice Burley described the misrepresentations as
serious or very serious, and considered the conduct demonstrated a level of deliberateness, with one category of representations as having been made on “an industrial scale”.
“There is no dispute that the conduct of Viagogo was deliberate in the sense that the design and implementation of the Viagogo ad and the Viagogo Australian website were deliberate and not inadvertent,” he said.
The consumer watchdog says it found price increases of 29% to 31% when it looked at the site.