FanFair Alliance, a campaign against industrial-scale online ticket touting, has accused resale platform Viagogo of ‘anti-consumer practices’.
The campaign group has outlined a series of alleged offences since the UK government launched a consultation on resale ticketing in January. The potential offences committed by Viagogo are outlined in FanFair Alliance’s submission for the consultation.
Examples include speculative selling for Bastille’s UK arena shows, a day before tickets were publicly available and promoted these listings via sponsored Google posts; allowing overseas traders to ‘resell’ tickets for artists including Central Lee, despite those same tickets being listed as unsold on Ticketmaster; and enabling overseas resellers to target small-scale events at independent music venues including The Louisiana in Bristol, Brudenell Social Club in Leeds, Hull’s Adelphi Club and The Moth Club in London.
Additionally, FanFair Alliance has alleged that Viagogo broke UK consumer law by permitting professional touts to list tickets with non-existent seat numbers, non-existent row numbers, and incorrect face values – all of which would be in breach of the Consumer Rights Act 2015. Viagogo is also accused of using UK newspaper advertorials to claim Coldplay tickets had ‘dropped to £98’ (€114/$130) but directed readers to an international version of the platform that unlawfully engages in drop pricing and adds a £47 service fee.
FanFair Alliance and its supporters believe that only a price cap in the UK can stop law-breaking ticket touts.
In its submission to the consultation, which closed on April 4, FanFair Alliance advocated for other new measures including bolstering existing legislation to prevent speculative ticketing and fraud, and a dedicated approach to enforcement, which prevents offshore ticketing websites and their suppliers from flouting UK law.
“Viagogo’s belligerent disregard for UK audiences never ceases to surprise,” said Adam Webb, FanFair Alliance campaign manager.
“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.”
LIVE chief executive Jon Collins backed the calls for a price cap, and added: “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.”
In a statement provided to TheTicketingBusiness, Viagogo said: “Viagogo takes its obligations under the law seriously and is fully compliant in the UK and with the CMA order. Our policies prohibit speculative listings. Any alleged speculative listing that we identify as being speculative is removed from our platform in line with our policy. Sellers found to be in breach of our policy will be dealt with including permanent suspension from using our platform. We remain committed to operating a safe, transparent, and lawful marketplace for fans to buy and sell tickets.”