AFL and NRL fans warned to look out for finals ticketing scams

With massive demand for finals tickets, AFL and NRL fans are being warned to look out for fraudulent websites and illegal resale listings.

Government departments in NSW and Victoria are reported to have removed hundreds of illegal ticket listings from resale sites during the first week of each of the finals of the competitions.

In Victoria, where the law prevents the advertising and/or resales of tickets for more than 10% of the purchase price, trading standards officials have removed listings for 169 tickets in the first week of the AFL finals.

Despite the concerns, desperate fans have taken to social media to pursue tickets, with dozens of posts and hundreds of comments from fans either seeking to buy or claiming to sell tickets to Friday’s AFL semi-final between Melbourne and Carlton is set to fill the MCG, with general public tickets selling out on Monday within eight minutes of release.

Almost 290,000 fans attended the AFL’s first week of finals to set a new record, and grounds were all-but-full at three of the four matches. In the NRL, tickets were scarce due the league’s policy of allowing first-week finals to be played at suburban stadiums.

The Guardian reports the tickets have been removed from platforms inlcuding eBay, Gumtree, Ticket Merchant, Viagogo and StubHub.

Victorian Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events Steve Dimopoulos commented “we’re making sure footy fans are paying a fair price for their tickets, so everyone has the best possible chance to cheer on their footy idols in the finals.”

In NSW, where it is also illegal to sell tickets for 10% more than face value, the state’s Office of Fair Trading has written to more than a dozen platforms, and provided them with a list of events which may present a high risk.

NSW Minister for Fair Trading, Anoulack Chanthivong noted “we hear it in the leadup to major events too often, fans and consumers are getting ripped off and it’s unacceptable.”

In NSW, the maximum penalties for breaching ticket scalping laws are $110,000 for a corporation or $22,000 for an individual. Fair Trading can also issue a $550 fine for any offence under the laws, including one-off breaches”.

Last year, eBay Australia was fined by NSW Fair Trading after marked-up tickets for the NRL Grand Final appeared on its platform.

The ACCC has warned consumers to proceed with caution and carry out a series of checks before buying tickets. These include identifying the authorised seller, checking that tickets aren’t on sale on resale platforms before their actual release, checking that websites are secure - that they use ‘https’ at the start of the URL, rather than ‘http’ - and checking whether a ticket seller who comes up first in online search results is not a reseller who may have paid to be at the top of the list.