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Ed Sheeran secures injunction against Viagogo over touted tickets in Germany
By Chris Cooke | Published on Tuesday 7 December 2021
A court in Hamburg has basically banned often controversial secondary ticketing website Viagogo from selling tickets to Ed Sheeran’s 2022 tour dates. In Germany, at least.
The injunction against Viagogo has been secured by promoter FKP Scorpio. It is using digital ticketing for the Sheeran shows it is promoting, which means tickets are personalised for each buyer and are therefore non-transferable. To that end, under the court order, Viagogo is obliged to tell people buying touted Sheeran tickets via its website that said tickets will not grant them entry into the musician’s shows.
Sheeran, of course, has been particularly vocal in his criticism of ticket touting and the secondary ticketing platforms, and he and promoter Kilimanjaro went to considerable efforts to stop fans buying touted tickets for the UK dates on his previous ‘÷ Tour’, resulting in a high profile run in with Viagogo.
He and FKP Scorpio also previously secured a injunction in the German courts in 2018 stopping Viagogo for listing touted tickets for ‘÷ Tour’ dates in the country. That 2018 court order followed a similar injunction obtained by Rammstein, also via the courts in Hamburg.
Commenting on the latest injunction, FKP Scorpio promoter Inga Esseling told IQ: “We are pleased about this success in court, which puts further obstacles in the way of unfair business models at the expense of consumers”.
