Viagogo branded 'the worst' as minister calls for boycott
Margot James has branded Viagogo 'the worst' as she urged people to boycott the online ticket seller.
The Digital Minister's warning came after the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said Viagogo was breaking UK advertising rules by failing to make additional fees clear.
Viagogo, which is one of the 'big four' secondary ticket resellers, has been sanctioned for using 'drip pricing' – when additional fees such as booking and delivery charges are added at the end of transactions.
Stourbridge MP Ms James said that if fans had to use a secondary site to buy tickets, "don't choose Viagogo – they are the worst".
The Geneva-based firm was the subject to ASA action in March.
The advertising watchdog said Viagogo had agreed to make compulsory fees 'sufficiently clear' but had missed the deadline.
The other three big resellers – StubHub, Seatwave and GetMeIn – were also subject to the action, but all agreed to comply with regulations.
Ms James said 'there were limits' to what action the Government could take against Viagogo as they are based outside the UK.
"They will have to comply with the law in the end," she said, adding: "We are taking more steps to constrain the activities of secondary ticketing sites to bring them into line, to make sure that users know exactly what the charges are before they click that they want to buy."
The ASA has received 23 complaints about Viagogo from groups including campaigners Fanfair Alliance, and concert promoters Festival Republic and Kilimanjaro Live.
Kilimanjaro Live is promoting Ed Sheeran's upcoming UK stadium tour, for which more than 10,000 tickets were recently cancelled in an attempt to encourage fairer prices.
Stuart Galbraith, of Kilimanjaro Live, said he negotiated with GetMeIn, Seatwave and StubHub to ensure they would not resell tickets for the tour.
"The only agency which listed against our wishes and ignored all our correspondence was Viagogo," he said.
"We're achieving exactly what Ed wanted, which is 'we want you to come in and pay this [fixed] price'."
Viagogo has previously said that people were informed that prices displayed did not include additional booking and delivery fees 'at the first stage of the customer journey'.
