Controversial Swiss-based ticketing website Viagogo has responded to an ongoing campaign to have the company banned from Australia, which has received backing from the likes of rock outfit Gang Of Youths, Laneway Festival and singer-songwriters Tash Sultana and Amy Shark.
The industry campaign, which is part of a larger Labor Party campaign to have Viagogo removed from Australia, has seen Gang Of Youths describe the company as a “disgraceful and disruptive scam” for allowing ticket scalpers to use its platform.
In a statement to Music Feeds, Viagogo said that while it doesn’t buy or sell tickets itself, it does allow ticket sellers to advertise tickets “above or below the original face value”.
“Viagogo provides a platform for third party sellers to sell tickets to event goers,” the company said. “Viagogo does not set ticket prices, sellers set their own prices, which may be above or below the original face value.
“The tickets sold on Viagogo’s platform are genuine tickets that have been sold on by the original ticket purchaser in good faith.”
While the company said tickets sold on its platform are “genuine tickets”, it also told Music Feeds that any customers who have “problems with their tickets” are advised to contact the company through its “event day hotline”.
“We are often able to find replacement tickets right away, and in the rare instances we are not able to, customers receive a full refund.”
The company said prices to certain events may increase “where demand is high and tickets are limited”, and admitted that “customers will often find multiple sets of tickets for the same section at different prices” on its site.
Viagogo also responded to claims from official concert organisers, who often tell prospective ticket-buyers that they may be denied entry if they purchase resold tickets through Viagogo.
“These types of entry restrictions are highly unfair and in our view, unenforceable and illegal,” the company said.
“Therefore, as with all tickets on our platform, Viagogo customers should feel confident that they will gain entry to the event, and that is why we back every ticket with the Viagogo guarantee.”
Singer-songwriter Tash Sultana recently described Viagogo as “a piece of shit company”, before Amy Shark told her fans not to “take the risk of buying tickets from companies like Viagogo”.
The company — which last year won an award for being “as reliable as a scalper in a back alley” — is routinely used by scalpers to sell overpriced tickets, while charging exorbitant fees in the process.
Viagogo has previously been taken to court by The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), after it received more than 400 complaints about the organisation in one year.
