Melbourne Comedy Festival ticket resales prompts ‘don't trust Viagogo’ advice

Viagogo has removed tickets to several Melbourne International Comedy Festival shows from its resale platform after the Victorian Government flagged a potential breach of its anti-scalping laws which make it illegal for tickets to major events to be resold for more than 10% above the original ticket price.

As reported by Melbourne newspaper The Age, the controversial ticket reseller was, as of Wednesday, been advertising seats to Wil Anderson's 25th March show at Melbourne's Comedy Theatre for $100.

Still available to purchase on the Ticketmaster website, their sale price is between $35 and $54.90,

Earlier this week Viagogo was also selling $100 tickets to one of Tom Gleeson's festival shows when they cost between $35 and $50 via Ticketmaster. It was a similar situation for fellow comedian Tommy Little's shows, with tickets advertised for $88 by the reseller.

A spokesman for Martin Pakula, Victoria's Minister for Tourism and Major Events, confirmed ticket listings for 10 Melbourne International Comedy Festival shows had now been removed from the Viagogo platform.

The tickets were pulled following inquiries from the government's authorised ticketing officers.

The spokesman told The Age “we're cracking down on scalpers to give fans a fair go at getting tickets to popular events like the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.

"Under the legislation, tickets to a declared event cannot be advertised or resold for more than 10% above the original value. Detection and monitoring activities take place 24 hours a day, seven days a week."

Susan Provan, Director of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, said she and her employees would be monitoring ticket resellers closely, advising “unfortunately Viagogo continue to allow listings of comedy festival tickets in breach of legislation, which means we continue to monitor their site.

"The festival and government department are working on a communications campaign to encourage consumers to buy tickets directly from a primary source."

Live Performance Australia Chief Executive, Evelyn Richardson said the incident was "further evidence Viagogo can't be trusted", telling The Age “despite their PR mission to clean up their reputation, they're still not compliant with Australian law.

"The message for consumers is: don't trust Viagogo. They say they're complying with Australian laws but here's a clear example of where they're not. The regulators need to step-up their enforcement activity."

Last week, Viagogo's global Managing Director Cris Miller described Australia's ticketing market as a "protectionist racket".

Following reports of fans being turned away from a range of events having bought invalid, duplicate or allegedly fake tickets from the online reseller, Miller hit back at complaints about its practices by accusing Australia's ticketing market of lagging 20 years behind the United States.

Miller said the number of people refused entry to events due to fake tickets bought through his company had been exaggerated by the media and the industry. He said some people simply brought the wrong documents to the gate.

Miller told the Sydney Morning Herald "the reports about the service have been sensationalised to the benefit of our antagonists (the event organisers).

"They're looking to control the ticket sales themselves. This is about commercial interests, this is about them monetising their events - and we're providing a platform they believe is competitive with their events."

Saying that ticket reselling was a good thing and should be respected by event promoters, Miller added “in the US, fundamentally if you buy a ticket, you own it. You can do with it what you want, and the ability to give it away or resell it to somebody is completely free. That has created significantly more access, more choice and most importantly better prices.

"The market today in Australia is like a protectionist racket. You're putting the interests of event organisers in front of the fans."

Miller conceded Viagogo made mistakes during a period of rapid growth and had changed its practices over the past two months. He said customers could now see the exact cost of their ticket, taxes, fees and delivery.

Google banned Viagogo from buying higher search results after finding the reseller in breach of United Kingdom laws and new requirements brought in by the search engine giant in 2018.

In recent weeks the ban has been lifted with Viagogo now complying with those requirements.