The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission accuses Viagogo of lying to the Federal Court
CONSUMER cops have accused ticket reseller Viagogo of lying to the Federal Court in the latest allegations made against the Switzerland-based scalping giant.
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EXCLUSIVE
CONSUMER cops have accused ticket reseller Viagogo of lying to the Federal Court.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission had already alleged in court documents that the Switzerland-based scalping giant misled its customers by failing to disclose fees of as much as 28 per cent.
Now a new filing with the court by lawyers for the ACCC claims Viagogo’s defence contains falsehoods.
Viagogo’s defence document said fees were “adequately disclosed”, including on the “tickets and seating selection” web page. Viagogo said that particular page included this statement: “Prices are set by sellers and may be lower or higher than face value. Prices exclude booking and delivery fees (applicable by transaction)’.”
RELATED: 28 per cent fee ‘not significant’ Viagogo claim
But in its new filing, the ACCC’s lawyers say that statement “was not displayed at all on the ‘tickets and seating selection page’ and could only be located if a user clicked on a drop-down arrow next to a heading ‘general notes’ at the bottom of the web page, which in some cases required the user to scroll to the bottom of the web page.”
The ACCC’s lawyers continued: “There was nothing on the tickets and seating selection page that alerted a consumer to the existence or need to read the general notes at the bottom of the page and if a consumer identified tickets they wished to purchase and selected … tickets then, unless those tickets were located at the bottom of the page immediately above the general notes, neither the content of the general notes nor the fact of there being general notes at the bottom of the web page would have been known to the Consumer.”
The ACCC has previously alleged Viagogo also misled consumers in saying tickets to certain events were scarce and likely to run out soon, without disclosing that this supposed scarcity referred to tickets on its website only.
It is also taking the scalpers to task for using the word “official” in its Google advertising, saying consumers have been tricked into thinking Viagogo is selling official original tickets when it doesn’t.
Viagogo has officially denied all the ACCC’s accusations.
A four-day hearing has been scheduled to begin in Sydney on October 29 this year before Justice Stephen Burley.