Secondary ticketing, new Agcom fine to Viagogo for 12.24 million

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Agcom’s ax hits the phenomenon of secondary ticketing again: a 12.24 million fine to Viagogo, a marketplace for “relocating” concert tickets in whose conduct the Communications Authority recognizes the violation of current legislation on the subject of contrast to the online scalping phenomenon. The preliminary evidence, verified with technical-investigative investigations by the Guardia di Finanza, made it possible to ascertain the sale or in any case the placement on the company’s website of access tickets for 68 events held in 2022, even at prices ten times higher than those nominal ones. Shows affected by the phenomenon, obviously, some of the most requested ones: Måneskin, Blanco, Renato Zero and Cirque du Soleil.

In consideration of the recovery of the concert market to the levels of the pre-Covid period, the Authority has launched, in collaboration with the Guardia di Finanza, a broad-spectrum monitoring, to identify the anomalous flows of ticket sales for shows on the secondary market . The coordinated action between Agcom and the Guardia di Finanza is particularly important, not only because the secondary ticketing phenomenon subtracts significant resources from the tax authorities, but also because it increases the barriers to users’ access to the cultural consumption markets, also to the detriment of the community of artists and entertainment workers.

It is not the first time that Viagogo ends up in the crosshairs of Agcom: only in June last year a fine of 23.5 million was raised. The reference legislation – article 1, paragraph 545, of the law of 11 December 2016, n. 232 – prohibits the “sale or any other form of placement of admission tickets to entertainment activities carried out by a person other than the owners, also on the basis of a specific contract or agreement, of the systems for their issue”. Only “the sale at a price equal to or lower than the nominal price of admission tickets to entertainment activities carried out by a natural person on an occasional basis, provided that it is not for commercial purposes”, is reserved.