Back in 2017, CHOICE had received hundreds of reports from concertgoers who were ticked off after dealing with ticketing reselling company Viagogo. 

Advertising seats to major events such as Adele and ZZ Top through Google's AdWords network, the ticket reseller engaged in illegal drip pricing, which commonly creates confusion for consumers, failed to respond to complaints and had a "customer guarantee" that was about as reliable as a scalper in a back alley.

The Viagogo website hit customers with 'last chance' warnings regardless of the event. With exclamation points and text blaring that tickets were about to sell out, other tickets displayed as "recently sold". Despite these pressure sales tactics most events remained available on Viagogo, and sometimes on the official seller sites, long after you’d secured your tickets.

In 2020, Viagogo was handed a $7 million fine in a Federal Court case brought on by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). 

State and territory ticket scalping laws are inconsistent depending on where you live in Australia. In NSW, South Australia and Western Australia, ticket scalping laws limit ticket reselling to 110% above the original price. But in Victoria, the government needs to designate the particular event a ‘major event’ for protections to come into place. In Queensland, anti-scalping laws only apply to certain venues. Tasmania and the Northern Territory have no ticket scalping laws at all.

Consistent protections will help to close the gaps that ticket scalpers are exploiting and give people certainty about what they can expect when it comes to purchasing resold tickets.

CHOICE has been calling for nationally consisitent, fair rules when it comes to ticket scalping for years, but we’re still seeing ticket scalpers trying to take advantage of people. Now this issue is back in the spotlight, it's our chance to show state and territory ministers that thousands of people still want fair and consistent anti-scalping laws. To do that, we need to show that thousands of people care about this issue.