More than 700 tickets to a New Zealand Rugby match against South Africa were cancelled because they were sold through resale sites.
The match is set to take place in Wellington at Westpac Stadium on July 27 and is nearly sold out. However, now many fans who bought tickets through secondary sites like Viagogo are fearful that they will not be allowed into the event. According to BBC, NZR said it had been told by official ticket agents that tickets sold through unauthorized channels will be deemed invalid.
“Unfortunately, it is highly likely that some of these tickets will have already been on-sold to unknowing fans on the secondary market,” NZR chief commercial officer Richard Thomas said. “Those fans may only discover their tickets are invalid when they present them at the gate at Westpac Stadium.”
Now, 700 new tickets will be available for the 34,500-seat venue via the official ticketing site. A note on the ticketing site explains that tickets must not be resold or transferred for a value greater than the original price, advertised or offered for resale on the internet or elsewhere, nor used for any promotional or commercial purpose. Additionally, tickets must not be bundled with any goods or services, the site states.
The cancelled tickets follow news that Viagogo will remain under investigation from the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority, although Viagogo is celebrating a legal ruling which states that the site complied with a court order from last year. The company is also under fire in the UK, as Google just suspended Viagogo from using its search engine marketing adwords platform to reach consumers.
Photo: Westpac Stadium Panorama via Wikimedia Commons
