Viagogo is ramping up its PR efforts as it tries to block the UK government from introducing a ticket resale price cap, something the Labour Party pledged to do earlier this year when still campaigning ahead of last month’s General Election.
A PR agency hired by the often controversial secondary ticketing company was recently hawking Viagogo Global MD Cris Miller for interviews. Miller has now popped up in a Times article where he talks through Viagogo’s arguments about why online ticket touting should not face further regulation. One of the arguments he highlights in the Times piece is framed around the ongoing Olympics in Paris.
It follows the publication last week of new stats from Viagogo bigging up the popular ‘fanonomics’ argument, which attempts to demonstrate how much value sports events and concerts generate for the economy beyond ticket sales. This includes pulling in other spending that people attending events might make on things like “clothing, accessories, merchandise, accommodation and food”.
Adam Webb from the anti-touting campaign FanFair says the renewed PR and media activity shows that Viagogo - and its US owner StubHub, which is planning an IPO - is “rattled” by the new UK government’s price-cap pledge.
“With a reported $16 billion IPO on the horizon”, he says, “Viagogo’s US operators are clearly rattled about the prospect of a UK crackdown against online ticket touts. Viagogo is the retail platform of choice for these rip off merchants and the website derives hundreds of millions of pounds through their activities”.
Asked about the ‘fanonmics’ study Viagogo published last week, Webb adds that the research “was so self-serving and so lacking in credibility, it was barely worth commenting on”.
Earlier this year, Labour Party leader and now Prime Minister Keir Starmer committed to introduce a price cap on ticket resale in the UK of 10%, which would have a major impact on commercial ticket touts who routinely apply much higher mark-ups on tickets to in-demand shows.
A commitment on ticket touting - albeit slightly less specific - was then included in the Labour Party’s manifesto. For obvious reasons, Viagogo is very keen indeed for the price cap to not go into force.
Both France and the Olympics have strict rules stopping the unofficial resale of tickets, which means tickets for events in the Paris games can only be resold via an official resale platform. The Times report says that the games in Paris “have thrown a spotlight on some of the issues” with tighter regulation of the ticketing market.
“Before the Olympic opening ceremony”, it reports, “hundreds of thousands of tickets were left unsold on the Paris 2024 primary ticketing site, including for popular events such as athletics, swimming and cycling”. It then quotes Miller claiming that the lack of “a fluid market for tickets” for the games has created a “disincentive to buy that leads to empty seats”, which is particularly problematic for an event like the Olympics which “does not suit spontaneous purchases”.
Beyond the Olympic-themed critique of ticket resale regulation, Miller is also quoted presenting the classic ‘regulating secondary ticketing platforms will lead to more ticket fraud’ argument. He concludes, “I don’t see how the market is going to change for the better if you put a price cap in place. There would be a lot of disappointed fans and it will not change buyer behaviour”.
Spinning arguments against a ticket touting price cap around the Olympics has obvious value in terms of making your lobbying newsworthy.
However, the games are such a unique event, it’s hard to extend ticketing issues at the Olympics to the ticketing market more generally. Plus, ticket resale was banned for the London 2012 games, and ticket sales there were above expectations.
As for the other arguments presented by Miller et al, they’ve all been heard plenty of times before, and anti-touting campaigners have well rehearsed responses.
But we'll see how things progress as the Labour government seeks to make good on its price cap commitment. Anti-touting campaigners, including the FanFair campaign, will be working hard to counter any lobbying from Viagogo.
Confirming that’s the plan, Webb says that the UK’s Competition & Markets Authority highlighted in 2021 that the “woeful lack of regulation in this sector can only be remedied by stronger legislation”. He adds, “FanFair looks forward to working with the UK government to deliver those measures, to protect consumers, and to make it easier for fans to resell a ticket for the price they originally paid”.
Asked for an update on the government’s price-cap pledge, a spokesperson for the Department For Business told The Times, “We know it is still too easy for ticket touts to get away with using underhand methods to inflate prices on the resale market, costing consumers dearly. That’s why we’ve committed to introducing new protections for consumers on ticket resales, as part of our mission to put fans back at the heart of live events”.