Viagogo's anti-consumer practices show why only a price cap can stop law-breaking ticket touts

14 April 2025 - Press release

 

FanFair Alliance, the music campaign against industrial-scale online ticket touting, has highlighted how controversial offshore ticketing website viagogo has continued to engage in misleading and potentially unlawful practices - even while the Government consults on introducing a price cap to crack down on abuses in the so-called secondary ticketing market. 

Despite some progress to tackle the practices of rogue resale platforms, online ticket touting remains a major scourge for fans of music, sports and theatre. 

According to recently-commissioned research by O2, dedicated ticket touts operating through platforms such as viagogo, StubHub International, Gigsberg and Vivid Seats cost UK music fans alone an extra £145m a year. 

Since 2016, FanFair and others have provided substantial evidence of systematic breaches of UK consumer law by these "uncapped" resale platforms - and viagogo, in particular - to the Competition & Markets Authority (CMA), National Trading Standards (NTS), and the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). 

 

Since the Government's consultation was launched on January 10th, we have catalogued a range of potential offences committed by viagogo.  These are outlined in detail in our submission, and include: 

• Speculative selling: listing tickets for Bastille's UK arena shows, a day before tickets were publicly available - and promoting those listings via sponsored Google posts.

• Speculative selling: allowing a group of overseas traders to "resell" tickets for artists including Central Cee - despite those same tickets still being listed as unsold on Ticketmaster. 

• Speculative selling: allowing other Ukrainian, US and Spanish-based touts to systematically target small-scale events at iconic independent music venues including The Louisiana (Bristol), Brudenell Social Club (Leeds), the Adelphi Club (Hull), and The Moth Club (London). 

• Breaking UK consumer law: permitting professional touts to list tickets with non-existent seat numbers, non-existent row numbers, and wildly incorrect face values - all breaches of the Consumer Rights Act 2015. 

• Drip pricing: using UK newspaper advertorials to claim Coldplay tickets had "dropped to £98" - but directing readers to an international version of viagogo that unlawfully engages in drip pricing and adds a £47 service fee.

• Misleading practices: employing a default search filter that allows viagogo to prioritise certain ticket listings over others, while rendering many sellers' listings invisible. Initially raised by US journalists at NPR, FanFair has found similarly manipulative practices in the UK. 

 

Adam Webb, Campaign Manager, FanFair Alliance: 
"Viagogo's belligerent disregard for UK audiences never ceases to surprise. But to continue promoting such exploitative and unlawful practices during the consultation period really takes the biscuit. It reiterates why we urgently need a price cap to stop this ongoing exploitation of fans, and to allow a fair and consumer-friendly model of ticket resale to flourish." 

 

Annabella Coldrick, Chief Executive, Music Managers Forum (MMF):
"This is really damning evidence, and I'm sure the Government will share our outrage at how these offshore resale platforms continue to exploit and rip off British gig-goers. It was MMF members who established the FanFair campaign in 2016, and we believe that a price cap on ticket resale is the only way to end these abuses."

 

Sharon Hodgson, MP for Washington & Gateshead South, and Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Ticket Abuse:
"The Ticket Abuse APPG and I have been monitoring the behaviour of viagogo for years now. These new findings are outrageous but completely unsurprising. Fans, artists, athletes and venues deserve better!

"I will continue to work with FanFair Alliance and the Government to end this blatant black market once and for all."

 

Jon Collins, CEO, LIVE: 
"These latest examples highlighting the blight of ticket touts on the live music sector reinforce the pressing need for swift Government action.  Removing the touts will be popular with industry and public alike, in research carried out for LIVE by Opinium in March 2025, just 12% of the public felt there should not be a cap on the resale price of tickets.  Eliminating the incentive to harvest tickets is the right thing to do, will reduce distress caused to fans and open up new economic activity."

 

UK Music Chief Executive Tom Kiehl:  
"UK Music fully supports a price cap and the fight for a fair deal for the millions of music lovers who have felt forced to pay exorbitant prices on the secondary ticketing market to see their favourite performers.  

"We are calling on the Government to deliver on their promise to introduce a price cap on resale tickets - otherwise music fans will continue to be at the mercy of unscrupulous touts charging rip-off prices.    

"The proposed price cap has widespread support from across the music industry, music fans and competition watchdogs. We're keen to work with the Government to bring in these badly needed changes as swiftly as possible."  

"If music fans are forced to pay sky-high prices for resale tickets to see their favourite acts, they have less money to spend on going to other gigs, supporting emerging talent and grassroots venues.  It's high time we supported the fans who are the lifeblood of our industry and drove the ticket touts out of business once and for all." 

In our submission to the consultation, which closed Friday 4th April, FanFair Alliance has advocated for new measures to stop law-breaking touts ripping off fans and to boost consumer-friendly ticket resale, including:

• A cap on ticket resale, allowing consumers who resell through online platforms to recoup the full price of their ticket - while ensuring new buyers pay no more than 10% over the original price.

• Bolstering existing legislation to prevent speculative ticketing and fraud, ensuring resale platforms verify the tickets they list, and prohibit their sellers listing more tickets than can be legally purchased in the primary market. 

• A dedicated approach to enforcement, that prevents offshore ticketing websites and their suppliers from flouting UK law and targeting UK audiences.