CHOICE REPORT REVEALS EXTENT OF TRICKERY IN TICKET RE-SALE INDUSTRY

Labor’s criticism of the Government for not doing more to protect Australians from sham ticket sales companies has been further bolstered this week with the release of a report from CHOICE calling for urgent reform of an industry rife with “trickery and confusion”.

 

From May 10 of this year Labor has been calling on the Government to urgently look into the fake ticket reseller Viagogo and take action by talking to the major search engines to prevent consumers being exposed to the dishonest practice of being sold fake or overpriced tickets. 

 

The CHOICE report (attached) found 79 per cent of Australian case studies in their study were tricked into believing the site they were using for purchasing tickets was the official seller and not that of a third-party resale site.

 

More than three quarters of CHOICE study participants across Australia, New Zealand and the UK who found their ticket through a Google search believed they were purchasing through the sellers official website and not a resale site.

 

The CHOICE report reveals 11 percent of complaints said their credit card had been over-charged, eight per cent received fake tickets and 11 per cent said they never saw their tickets.

 

These damning statistics come in the same week the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) announced it would take ticket resale company Viagogo to the Federal Court for alleged breaches of the Australian Consumer Law.

 

ACCC allege Viagogo have engaged in misleading or deceptive conduct and made false and misleading representations while reselling tickets to live entertainment events.

 

Concerts, festivals and other live entertainment are one of the biggest discretionary purchases that consumers will make each a year. Consumers deserve to know that their hard earned money will purchase them a legitimate ticket to the advertised event.

 

For months now Labor has been advocating on behalf of consumers who have been ripped off by third-party ticket sellers when trying to purchase tickets to their favourite musicians or sporting teams and it is about time the Minister responsible did his job and stopped this disgraceful practice.

 

It is simply not good enough when the best the Government can do in response to Labor’s calls for reform, is belatedly add ticket scalping to its list of discussion items for tomorrow’s Consumer Affairs Ministers’ meeting – presumably at the bottom of the list after retirement villages, fees for paper bills, 19 legislative proposals from the Consumer Affairs Australian New Zealand review into the Australian Consumer Law and the 16 findings and recommendations of the Productivity Commission’s report into Consumer Law Enforcement and Administration.