The ticket resale website Viagogo has been accused of advertising non-existent gig tickets on behalf of an employee of its sister company StubHub, prompting calls for regulatory and criminal investigations.
Musicians condemned Viagogo amid renewed concern about resale websites, which allow fans – but also professional ticket touts – to sell on music, theatre and sports tickets for profit.
Viagogo and StubHub, which are in the middle of a troubled $4bn (£2.9bn) merger, have previously come under fire for a series of controversial business practices, including breaches of consumer law.
The fresh allegations focus on more than £1m worth of tickets for gigs across Europe, some of which were advertised by a company with connections to Viagogo.
Madrid-based GES SL listed thousands of tickets, including more than 600 events in the UK, on the Viagogo website, which is Britain’s largest ticket resale platform.
But organisers of some of the events said GES SL could not possibly have all of the tickets it was advertising.
This was because, in some cases, none had actually been sold because of uncertainty over whether events could go ahead owing to the pandemic.
Reg Walker, a ticketing expert and security consultant atthe Iridium Consultancy, carried out test purchases, placing orders for tickets on Viagogo. Shortly afterwards, event organisers received orders for the same quantities, in Walker’s name.
This, Walker said, indicated that someone acting for GES SL engaged in a fraudulent practice known as “speculative selling”, which Viagogo has said it does not condone.
Touts who use this tactic advertise tickets they do not yet have, wait for a buyer to order them, before seeking to procure some from the concert organiser.
The practice helps touts supercharge profits because they do not need to buy tickets they might not be able to sell, only spending to fulfil firm orders.
Peter Hunter and David Smith were jailed in 2020 after being found guilty of four counts of fraud including one related to speculative selling, following a 2016 Guardian investigation.
Walker said the test purchases were “indisputable evidence of speculative ticketing, which is fraud”.
“All of this is happening on the Competition and Markets Authority’s watch,” he said, referring to previous efforts by the consumer watchdog to crack down on speculative sales.
A CMA spokesperson said the watchdog was “concerned about these reports of speculative selling.”
“We will be looking closely at this evidence to ensure that the order has not been breached. If we do find clear evidence that viagogo is not complying with consumer protection law, we won’t hesitate to take action.”
The CMA secured a court order against Viagogo in 2018, forcing the company to ask touts to tick a box confirming they have any tickets they advertise. Viagogo says it does this but takes no other steps to prevent the practice.
The same court order also requires Viagogo to provide its customers with contact details of the people they’re buying from.
The information provided by Viagogo for GES is incorrect but the Guardian has established an link between the two companies.
A Madrid address given for GES SL on Viagogo not only gives an incorrect street but the company name is incomplete.
The company’s full name, according to a well-placed source, is Global Experience Solutions. A second source, with knowledge of that company, said it was run by a senior employee at StubHub in Spain.
The employee did not return requests for comment via LinkedIn or via StubHub, which was bought by Viagogo for $4bn in February last year.
StubHub said it did “not sell tickets speculatively and has no relationship with a company called Global Experience Solutions”.
“We do not have knowledge that any of our employees has a relationship with this entity and we will investigate any potential breach of our code of conduct,” it added.
A source close to Viagogo said it had no other connections to Global Experience Solutions.
Campaigners and security experts said the links between the company and Viagogo raised questions about the resale website’s commitment to prevent speculative selling.
“The pattern of these listings combined with evidence from test purchases, indicate Viagogo may be complicit in a multimillion-pound global fraud,” said Adam Webb of FanFair Alliance, a music industry group backed by managers of artists such as Arctic Monkeys and One Direction.
“The company is actively setting up hundreds of event pages and allowing a single seller, connected to Viagogo, to advertise identikit numbers of tickets that we do not believe they possess.
“Having raised this issue specifically with the CMA back in January, FanFair will now write to [the chief executive of the watchdog] Andrea Coscelli and his enforcement again urging immediate action.
“I find it inconceivable that a rogue offshore business, already under the investigation of UK regulators and with such a chequered history, can continue to operate in this way. Viagogo should be the subject of a full criminal investigation.”
Walker said it was essential that the Switzerland-based company now remove GES SL listings and said a criminal investigation may be warranted.
A spokesperson for Viagogo said it had “strict measures in place to ensure the accuracy and compliance of listings and to prevent fraudulent selling, which are audited annually by a third party.
“In all transactions there is an onus on the seller to agree to certain terms and conditions, which includes the right to sell a ticket.
“Where we are provided with proof from a relevant authority of an abuse of these rules we will investigate and, if confirmed, action will be taken.”
Sharon Hodgson, the Labour MP who co-chairs a cross-party group investigating ticket abuse, said: “It shouldn’t be for campaign groups, artists, venues or promoters to monitor a secondary ticketing website to ensure that it is acting legally.
“The CMA should immediately intervene and investigate these allegations and take necessary legal action.”
The CMA, which has repeatedly clashed with Viagogo and StubHub over breaches of consumer law, is already scrutinising the merger of the two companies. It has ordered Viagogo to sell StubHub’s international business, including the Spanish operation at the centre of fraud allegations, to satisfy competition concerns.
Artists whose tickets have appeared on Viagogo under listings placed by GES SL, said they were appalled by the ease with which industrial-scale ticket touting continues unchecked.
The Scottish indie band Arab Strap said: “We’ve always been appalled by touting. It sickens us to think our gigs might lead to fans being ripped off by what is now a thriving, immoral industry.
“Nobody deserves to profit from concerts other than the musicians, crew, promoters, bar staff, and all who work on the events, and a ticket should only ever be worth the price printed on it.”
