Competition watchdog launches legal action against Viagogo

The Competition and Markets Authority has started legal proceedings against Viagogo after it accused the secondary ticketing site of contempt of court.

In November, the CMA secured a court order against Geneva-based Viagogo that obliged it to overhaul its UK website to fully comply with consumer protection law by 17 January 2019.

However, in March the competition watchdog announced it was preparing to take legal action for contempt of court, as it did not believe Viagogo had fully complied with the order, and on Thursday it confirmed that proceedings would now be launched.

The CMA said “many positive changes have been made” and that Viagogo had paid more than £400,000 in refunds to people whose claims it had wrongly rejected. But it argued that these changes alone were not enough.

In particular, it said the warning displayed by Viagogo that tickets may be refused because of resale restrictions did not comply with the order; that the site was using misleading ticket availability messages; that seat numbers were not displayed properly; and some incomplete addresses of businesses selling tickets were being displayed.

Andrea Coscelli, chief executive of the CMA, said: “It is simply not good enough that Viagogo is continuing to drag its heels by not complying in full with this important court order. We secured the order on behalf of people who use these resale websites and deserve to know the facts before parting with their hard-earned money.

“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.”