A campaign initiated by the FRC, conducted in cooperation with partners sensitive to the defence of consumer rights and the fight against the grey ticketing market.
The Fédération romande des consommateurs (FRC, the consumer federation for French-speaking Switzerland) receives complaints daily from people who feel they were cheated when they bought tickets online.
A regrettably effective pitfall
When using Google or Bing, do not click blindly on the links at the top of the list of search results.
The top of the list is occupied by unauthorised ticket offices that are not the official partners of the event. In Switzerland, the main players on the secondary ticket market are Alltickets, Viagogo, Stubhub-ch.ch, Safetickets.net, Onlineticketsshop, Worldticketshop, Vienna, Ticketoffice, Ticketbande…
Consumers believe they are on the official box office site.
Have you fallen for such practices?
- Have you paid twice or even three times the normal ticket price?
- Were exorbitant taxes added?
- Were you unable to choose your seats?
- Were you refused admission?
- Did you never receive your ticket?
- Were the time and date of the concert wrong?
- Was your seat in the opposite team’s fan zone?
- You are 42 years’ old but were issued a children’s ticket?
- The ticket delivered was for a lower category than you had ordered?
- You bought seating tickets for an open air festival?
BE CAREFUL
Make sure you are on the site of the authorised ticketing office
- Warning: unauthorised vendors pay to be at the top of Google and Bing search result lists.
- Authorised ticketing offices are indicated on the promoter’s website.
Verify seat availability and ticket prices
- Warning: unauthorised vendors often announce that concerts are nearly booked out, drive up prices and use timers and/or other devices to pressure consumers into hasty purchases.
- Seating availability and the official prices are indicated on the website of the organiser’s partner ticket office. Tickets are often still available.
Check the terms and conditions of admission to an event
- Warning: unauthorised vendors do not always mention the terms and conditions of access on the tickets. (For example: a personal ticket or ID is required for admission to the event.)
- The terms and conditions are indicated on the promoter’s website.
We need you
Unauthorised vendors are present at all types of events and invest considerable means to secure the top places on browser lists. The only defence against these practices is to warn people about the pitfalls of buying tickets online.
Talk to your friends about the campaign
If you know anyone who has been entrapped by such practices, invite them to send us their testimonial.
Support our action
Make a donation. Your donation will help us reach more people with our campaign and enable us to pursue legal and criminal proceedings.
A campaign initiated by the FRC, conducted in cooperation with partners sensitive to the defence of consumer rights and the fight against the grey ticketing market.
Are you a sports or entertainment professional?
Join our campaign.
To keep abreast of FRC’s action against the grey market, follow our file (in french).
Read more: SMPA file on the secondary market (in german).
