FIFA Gets Preliminary Injunction Against Viagogo

Ahead of the World Cup soccer tournament in Russia, FIFA has obtained a preliminary injunction against Viagogo, issued by the district court of Hamburg, Germany.

www.kremlin.ru – Fifa World Cup 2018:
Russia

It’s just under 150 days until the FIFA World Cup kicks off July 14 in Moscow, where Russia is going to take on Saudi Arabia at the Luzhniki Stadium. After tickets for several matches had appeared on Viagogo, even though FIFA only starts allocating and distributing tickets in April, the association took action.

“Before April 2018, when FIFA will start to distribute physical tickets to fans, sellers in the secondary market will possibly not be able to guarantee the delivery of tickets, since they will not have them in their possession. Fans purchasing from unauthorized sources will therefore run the risk of not receiving the tickets that they ordered and paid for,” FIFA argued.

Hamburg’s district court agreed and held that Viagogo “was leading potential ticket buyers to believe that it had valid and deliverable tickets for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, although this was not the case.”

This behavior, the court deemed, was both misleading and in violation of Germany’s Unfair Competition Act (Gesetz gegen den unlauteren Wettbewerb). It also found that selling unavailable tickets, some of them overpriced, constituted a “deliberate obstruction” to FIFA’s own ticket sales.
The Viagogo AG, which is based in Switzerland, will have to pay a fine of €250,000 ($305,000) for violating the injunction, or face a six-moth prison sentence for the person in charge.

FIFA stated that it “greatly welcomes” the decision of the Hamburg District Court, “which will protect fans against viagogo AG’s misleading campaign and help prevent them from buying overpriced tickets on the secondary market.” The association points out that – apart from the Match Hospitality AG, which offers valid ticket-and-hospitality bundles – legitimate tickets are only available at fifa.com/tickets.

The first tickets for the 2018 world cup went on sale in September. Since teams were still qualifying for the finals, fans could either buy tickets based on the date and venue of a match (with the team determined later), or follow a specific team (with the date and venue determined later). Successful applicants were determined by a random selection draw and served on a first-come-first-served basis, Nov. 16-28.

Sales phase two began after the final draw, on Dec. 5, also consisting of a random selection draw followed by a first-come, first-served sale, with the current sales window closing Jan. 31. 

Some 1,318,109 tickets were requested within the first 24 hours, according to Fifa. Between the December on sale and Jan. 15, the association registered 3,141,163 ticket requests from all around the world.

While most of the applications have come from Russia, international demand accounted for 38 percent, with fans from Germany, Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Colombia, USA, Spain, Poland and China representing the top 10 countries from abroad.

FIFA – FIFA World Cup 2018
Moscow

There is going to be one more last-minute sales phase starting April 18, which will last until the final match day. In this third phase, “tickets will be available to all customers online and, from a date to be defined up until the final Match day of the competition, remaining Tickets will also be available Over the Counter at the designated FIFA Venue Ticketing Centers,” the association informs, adding that “during the last-minute sales phase, ticket purchases are processed as a real-time transaction to the extent inventory remains available.”

Successful ticket buyers will need FIFA’s Fan ID, which was already used during the Confed Cup in 2017 and for which they can register after successfully purchasing a ticket. Fan ID is a mandatory identity document for all spectators at the world cup, without which they will not be allowed into the stadiums. It also serves as a public transport card, as well as a temporary visa valid from 10 days prior to kick off until 10 days after 2018’s world champion is determined in the final match on July 15.