Eventim is issuing customer refunds on tickets to thousands of coronavirus-impacted events, but only for the amount of the ticket itself. Costs associated with the order’s service and processing fees are not deemed refundable according to Eventim’s terms and conditions, leading ticketholders to accuse the German company of profiteering from the global pandemic.
The ticketing giant earned €481 million in ticket revenue last year and despite the virus’ widespread impact on the live events and entertainment industry, it could retain roughly 12 to 14 percent of the full price customers paid per event, MarketWatch reports.
“If the respective organizer has canceled the event and has commissioned us to reverse the ticket costs, we will immediately refund the ticket costs to the customer. The fees are for services already provided, such as shipping, packing, administration,” a company spokesperson revealed to MarketWatch.
Despite this policy being written into the fine print of its sales terms and conditions, consumers have lashed out for not receiving refunds for their full order price. Some aired their frustrations on social media to call the company’s refund practice “disgusting” and threatened to use other ticketing sources in the future.
@eventim_uk can you please tell me how I can pay £33.33 per ticket and a £2.50 handling fee and only receive a £59 refund? Surely I should get the full ticket price refunded for @KeshaRose cancelled event? Absolutely disgusting that you’re profiting during these times… pic.twitter.com/R8uFPJ8hUE
— Shan (@nahsdx) April 28, 2020
@eventim_uk how companies behave during these times will reflect on future customer. Your lack of upfront offer of refunds and then when pushed face value only, so effectively lost £50 is disgusting. I’ll never use you again, I hope others will follow.
— Stacey Reynolds (@stacey_reynolds) May 7, 2020
https://twitter.com/x_LizM_x/status/1257968816560246784
The practice was also slammed by an industry investigator, who called it a penalty against fans that are unable to attend events and warned that companies are susceptible to further backlash when fans are able to regularly buy tickets again.
“I would encourage anyone who has been a victim of this to contact Trading Standards, and potentially the Competition and Markets Authority,” ticket security expert Reg Walker told MarketWatch. “The government’s doing its bit to support people through furlough, even landlords are giving rent-free periods to businesses that are struggling and it’s absolutely right that the private sector steps up to the plate and does the same thing,” he said.
Eventim is offering the full price of an order in the form of a voucher, which was approved by the German government last week. Consumers would have until the end of 2021 to use the voucher on a future event and if they have not used it by that point, they are entitled to the cash refund.
