French Government Maintains Anti-Secondary Ticketing Stance

Federico Gambarini/picture alliance via Getty Images – EURO 2016 Final between Portugal and France
Supporters of France wave flags at the Stade de France, Saint-Denis, France, July 10, 2016.

The French Constitutional Council has rejected an attempt by Viagogo and Ticketbis to contest a law that criminalizes the resale of tickets for events without the authorisation of the promoter. 

Both ticket resale companies had challenged the constitutionality of article 313-6-2 of the French Criminal Code, which penalized the resale of tickets for sporting, cultural and live events without authorization of the event’s promoter.

The French Constitutional Council reasoned in a statement, that one of the main reasons for upholding the existing legislature was safety and security, “such as the administrative or judicial prohibitions of access to these events or the control of the placement of the audience, which rely on the identification of persons purchasing these titles, may be hampered by the resale of access rights.”

“On the other hand,” the statement continues, “the legislator also wished to guarantee the access of the greatest number of consumers to the sporting events, cultural, commercial and live shows.” To ensure this, any “artificial increase in the price of tickets to these events and shows” had to be curbed.

Malika Séguineau, director of French promoters association PRODISS, commented: “This decision strongly reinforces the French law. The law protects the consumers, the fans, the artists and the promoters, against the drifts engendered by the illicit resale of tickets. We welcome today’s decision, especially as PRODISS, alongside several promoters, have parallelly filed a criminal action against Viagogo. The judge is soon to be appointed.” 

Backing the council’s decision are the country’s professional sports association ANLSP, the French rugby federation FFR, its equivalent in tennis FFT, as well as FIFA, the Fédération Internationale de Football Association, and Union of European Football Associations UEFA, and others.

The French authors rights society SACEM also welcomed the decision.