CTS Eventim has lodged an appeal after the Higher Regional Court of Bamberg partially upheld a lawsuit filed against the ticketing and entertainment business, claiming that it overtly pressured customers into buying insurance.
The lawsuit was filed by German consumer organisation VZBZ (Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband), which accused CTS Eventim of ‘inadmissibly influencing customers by designing the website in order to urge them to take out insurance’.
A legal advisor of VZBZ’s legal enforcement team, Jana Brockfeld, added that “many companies design their websites in such a manipulative way that consumers are pushed to make decisions that they would not otherwise make”.
Brockfeld added that this type of design is banned in the European Union under the Digital Service Act.
VZBZ claimed that when consumers wanted to order tickets through Eventim’s website, the offer of a paid ticket insurance was clearly highlighted in colour. However, those that clicked further into the checkout without selecting insurance were presented with a window pop-up that recommended the purchase of ticket insurance.
It was recommended to buy insurance to “avoid anger and frustration over a missed event” and that the consumer had to click on a button that said “I bear the full risk” before they could order tickets without insurance.
The Bamberg Higher Regional Court partially upheld this complaint and said that the repeated offer of insurance violated the law, but rejected VZBZ’s application to also prohibit Eventim from offering ticket insurance for the first time in the shopping basket.
In a statement to IQ, CTS Eventim said that the ruling was not final and confirmed it has launched an appeal.
“We would also like to point out that the judgement is directed solely against the specific wording currently used in the pop-up in the event of rejection of ticket insurance, but not against the use of a pop-up as a new request per se, or against its other design,” added the spokesperson.