The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has upheld a complaint against a statement made by Viagogo in an ad claiming that more than half of the events listed on its resale platform had tickets selling below ‘face value’.
The advertisement was featured during an episode of the Political Currency podcast, hosted by former UK politicians Ed Balls and George Osborne, in April 2024. The hosts said during the advert: “This episode is sponsored by Viagogo, the world’s leading marketplace that helps fans safely buy and sell tickets to their favourite live events[…] Did you know that over half the events listed on Viagogo had tickets selling below face value?
The ad continued: “It sounds like Viagogo might be the solution next time I need cheaper tickets to the hottest shows in town.”
FanFair Alliance, which was established to unite those who wish to take a stand against industrial-scale online ticket touting, challenged whether the claim “over half the events listed on Viagogo had tickets selling below face value” was misleading and could be substantiated.
In response, Viagogo said the claim was based on data covering the whole of 2023, which it considered appropriate substantiation for the claim made in April 2024.
Face value was calculated by inputting the base price of a ticket, excluding booking fees, service charges, delivery fees or any other charges, and then applying a 20% increase. Viagogo said that 20% of the base ticket price was the average additional cost paid by consumers for those additional fees and charges when buying tickets from their original seller, based on an independent study.
Additionally, Viagogo said that the claim compared the Viagogo price, including all fees and charges, against the face value price including the 20% for fees and charges, which it believed was an appropriate like-for-like comparison. On that basis, in 2023, of all UK events for which tickets were sold on Viagogo’s marketplace, 53% had at least one ticket sold at below face value.
The ASA upheld the complaint as it felt this definition “did not reflect consumers’ understanding of the face value of a ticket, because it included the various booking fees and other charges paid by consumers”.
“We also understood that it did not reflect Viagogo’s own use of the term face value on their website, where it related to the ticket price. Because of the disparity between the ticket price and Viagogo’s definition of face value, we considered that the data provided was not relevant in supporting the claim as it would be understood by consumers.”
The ASA added: “Notwithstanding the above, under Viagogo’s definition, 53% of events listed on the website had sold at least one ticket below face value. We considered, however, that one ticket per event was not a significant proportion of tickets and, as such, did not represent a reasonable chance for consumers to purchase tickets below face value.
“We further considered that, because consumers would expect more than one ticket to be sold below face value per event, that implied claim also was not substantiated by the information provided.
“For the above reasons, we considered that the claim, as it would be understood by consumers, had not been substantiated and was therefore misleading.”
A Viagogo spokesperson told TheTicketingBusiness: “We are aware of the Advertising Standards Authority’s recent ruling regarding a Viagogo podcast advertisement.
“The advertisement in question is from last year, has been discontinued and has not aired since then. Viagogo is a safe, secure, and regulated global online marketplace and we are fully compliant in the UK.”