JUNE | FEATURE
Jones says she thinks the ticketing industry
will look quite different in a post-Covid world.
people to roll their tickets over and support
the event. “We try to make [rolling over] the
default position, so customers don’t actually
have to do anything. The announcement of
an event cancelling is made, the new date
is given – congratulations, you’re going in
2021!”
Jones says she thinks the ticketing
industry will look quite different in a post-
Covid world. “One big change we will see
is the realisation of the risk that ticketing
companies put themselves in. I don’t know if
it will go so far as ticketing being regulated,
but I certainly think there will be some
strong questions asked by the underlying
merchant banks,” she says.
The damage has been widespread and felt
by everyone, but Jones adds that “audiences
on the whole have been very understanding
about the fact that many events aren’t
happening this year, and have carried over
their tickets. Our refund rate across the
board has been quite low, which has saved a
lot of events.”
Trust issues
Customers have been less understanding
with some other ticket vendors. Resale
site Viagogo has attracted criticism for its
unclear policies on refunds, with money
withheld from events that it says have not
been officially cancelled.
Reader James Kindred contacted
Access and explained how he had tried
unsuccessfully to get refunds on tickets to
Pearl Jam’s BST Hyde Park concert in July.
Kindred says he had two tickets through
Festicket, which he had no issues getting
refunded. But a representative from Viagogo
wouldn’t confirm to Kindred that the event
was cancelled – despite the organisers
releasing a statement cancelling the festival
on 9 April.
Kindred says: “I’ve sent Viagogo emails
from the event organisers [which state]
that the event has been cancelled, and still
nothing has happened. I’ve now logged a
complaint through my credit card company
which has opened an investigation. I’m also
planning on lodging a complaint through
the Consumer Protection Act.”
The difference between an event being
“cancelled” versus “postponed to 2021”
could be more sinister than just marketing
spin. Access hopes no company would use
this grey area to deny legitimate refunds to
paying customers.
Viagogo continues to face legal challenges
in the backdrop of this uncertainty. The
company was recently ruled against in the
Austrian supreme court, which ordered
Viagogo to better inform buyers about the
identity of ticket sellers before a purchase
is made on viagogo.at. The platform will be
held accountable if it doesn’t ensure sellers’
compliance with the registration and the
disclosure of their identities.
In the end, it comes down to trust.
Everybody is inevitably struggling right
now, but consumers are more willing
to roll their ticket over for a brand and a
company they trust. Very few if any of the
players in the ticketing industry can afford
to refund all their cancelled events. Some
would simply disappear overnight if all their
customers demanded the refunds they are
entitled to by law.
But by building trust through years of
good customer service and transparent
business, companies like TicketSellers have
given themselves a fighting chance against
the current drought of events. There is hope
that the organisers of smaller festivals will
still be kicking around come next summer,
when they will be able to welcome those
customers back with open arms in 2021.
A disastrously
timed buyout
Viagogo acquired its main
competitor StubHub from owner
eBay back in February 2020,
for USD$4.05bn. The buyout
was disastrously timed - just
weeks later almost all Viagogo’s
ticketed events were cancelled
or postponed due to Covid-19.
To make matters worse, the UK’s
Competition & Markets Authority
is currently investigating whether
or not the acquisition breaks
competition law.
Ticketing watchdog FanFair
Alliance warned that the deal would
hand Viagogo a monopoly on ticket
resale in the UK. Two other major
ticket resale players, GetMeIn and
SeatWave, recently closed in the
face of negative publicity and poor
financial performance. FanFair
was supported in its claim by the
managers of high-profile artists
including PJ Harvey, Mumford &
Sons and Little Mix.
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