It’s been revealed hundreds of All Blacks fans have been caught out after buying match passes on the resale website Viagogo, with NZ Rugby claiming tickets sold on the site were "fraudulently altered".
The figures were detailed in a Commerce Commission filing at the High Court in Auckland, as part of its request to have an interim injunction granted against Viagogo - the Commission claiming "extensive fraudulent behaviour" by the Swiss-based website.
Viagogo has been the subject of hundreds of complaints to TVNZ1’s Fair Go programme, and today the Commerce Commission revealed the company is its most-complained about trader, ever.
NZ Rugby released figures today showing nearly 500 (494) All Blacks fans, holding 675 tickets, were denied entry to games against France, Australia, Argentina and South Africa in 2018 when they tried to use tickets purchased through Viagogo.
Of those 494, 141 tickets were considered "fraudulently altered".
Viagogo guarantees its tickets - but that’s one of the issues raised by the Commerce Commission in its claims against the company, alleging customers would assume that would mean they’re guaranteed entry to an event. The company promises to refund customers if a ticket is rejected at an event.
The Commerce Commission also alleges the company uses high-pressure sales tactics to encourage consumers to purchase tickets, and does not fairly disclose its booking, currency and handling fees.
From NZ Rugby:
• All Blacks v France (Eden Park, 9 June 2018) - over 119 consumers (with over 233 tickets) were declined entry to the match because they held invalid tickets purchased from Viagogo. The vast majority of these consumers were adults with child tickets. There were at least 14 instances of consumers presenting fraudulently altered tickets which they had purchased through Viagogo.
• All Blacks v France (Westpac Stadium, 16 June 2018) - over 113 consumers (with over 214 tickets) were declined entry to the match because they held invalid tickets purchased from Viagogo. Of these, there were at least 10 instances of fraudulently altered tickets which consumers had purchased through Viagogo.
• All Blacks/Black Ferns v Australia double header (Eden Park, 25 August 2018) - 162 consumers (with over 370 tickets) were declined entry to the match because they held invalid tickets purchased from Viagogo. Of those consumers, at least five presented tickets which had already been scanned by other attendees, one presented tickets which appeared to have been obtained through a fraudulent credit card transaction, and at least 94 held fraudulently altered tickets purchased from Viagogo.
• All Blacks v Argentina at Trafalgar Park (Nelson, 8 September 2018) - 21 consumers (with over 51 tickets) were declined entry to the match because they held invalid tickets purchased from Viagogo. Of these consumers, at least two presented tickets which had already been scanned by other attendees, and one consumer had purchased tickets from Viagogo but never received the tickets. There were also at least nine instances of fraudulently altered tickets purchased through Viagogo.
• All Blacks v South Africa (Westpac Stadium, 15 September 2018) - over 79 consumers were declined entry to the match because they held invalid tickets purchased from Viagogo. For this match there were at least 14 instances of consumers presenting fraudulently altered tickets purchased through Viagogo.
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