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Gang Of Youths call for bad tout stories in bid to “stop Viagogo”

By | Published on Monday 26 November 2018

Gang Of Youths

Australian rock band Gang Of Youths have called on artists, promoters and music fans in the country to get in touch with stories about how Viagogo has negatively impacted on their businesses or their gig-going experiences. The plan is to put together a pack of all the bad experiences reported and hand it over to politicians who have been critical of ticket touting at large and Viagogo in particular.

The most controversial of all the ticket resale websites has been widely criticised in Australia, just as in various other countries where it has a high profile. Meanwhile Australia’s Competition & Consumer Commission – like its counterparts in New Zealand and the UK – is currently involved in legal action against Viagogo over allegations it has routinely broken consumer rights rules in a bid to confuse gig-goers into thinking they are buying tickets from approved agents when they are, in fact, buying a ticket from an unofficial tout.

There have also been moves in Australian political circles to more tightly regulate ticket touting in general in the country. Indeed, in New South Wales new rules have already been introduced that mean that touts can only really charge a basic admin fee when reselling tickets for profit. Earlier this year discussions began as to whether similar rules could be expanded across the rest of the country.

The campaign launched by Gang Of Youths on Instagram last night is very much focused on big bad Viagogo. The band, who also hit out at the touts earlier in the year, are currently in the middle of a big tour of Australia and are nominated for the Best Live Act prize at Australia’s big ARIA Awards later this week.

Writing on Instagram, the band said: “As many of you have encountered, Viagogo has become one of the most disgraceful and disruptive scams our live industry has faced in recent years. Viagogo impacts promoters, managers, venues, ticket agencies and most importantly artists and their fans”.

“A number of different bodies over the past twelve months have been talking to both state and federal government regarding this issue”, they go on. “There is an opportunity to help eradicate this business from Australia. We are calling for as many examples of how this fraudulent operation has affected your business, additionally, we are encouraging artists to also post on their socials so fans can reply with real-life examples of how they have been affected by Viagogo”.

The band conclude: “We intend to give this documentation to the Opposition Party to form part of their campaign pledge to have this site closed down”.

Looking for a speedy turnaround, they are asking for stories to be submitted by email to [email protected] by Wednesday this week.

It is interesting that Gang Of Youths have called on other artists to share their message to their fans. In the UK, the launch in 2016 of the FanFair campaign – led and backed by managers, agents, promoters and artists – helped to organise and amplify those in the music industry who were opposed to secondary ticketing, and this in turn helped rally support for better regulation within the political community.



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