Deco filed a complaint with Anacom, the Irish Digital Services Authority and ASAE against the ticket resale platform Viagogo, for violating digital rights and speculative practices that harm millions of consumers, the association announced this Wednesday.
At issue is a complaint against the platform that claims to be the “largest secondary market in the world for tickets to live events”, for “infringement of consumers’ digital rights”, presented together with the European organization Euroconsumers to the National Communications Authority (Anacom) and the Irish Digital Services Authority.
Additionally, “for harming more than four million users every day at European level”, Deco asked the Food and Economic Security Authority (ASAE) to “put a brake on the crimes of speculation and other unfair practices that harm consumers” and demanded “exemplary sanctions”.
Speaking to Lusa, Rosário Tereso, jurist responsible for Execution and International Relations at Deco, explained that “the platform uses what is commonly called a set of obscure patterns, which, in essence, are techniques that aim to manipulate and pressure consumers into a decision, often deliberately guiding them towards certain options, harming informed decisions”.
According to the person responsible, this happens with the adoption of “works that convey a false scarcity of tickets”, for example with ‘pop-ups’ that appear with timers that press for the completion of a purchase.
“Also the presentation of prices in a misleading way, placing, for example, cheaper labels on more expensive tickets and even the selection of [número de] default tickets, which can lead to the inadvertent purchase of more than one ticket”, explained Rosário Tereso.
For Deco, these are “clear manipulation techniques that harm consumers and that often precipitate a purchase that they later see was not in their interest.”
This issue had already been reported by Deco to the authorities, “as it had received hundreds of complaints”, especially when consumers “only realized later that they had purchased highly inflated tickets”, he highlighted.
“What is new now is that the new Digital Services Regulation has been in full application since February 2024 and we have now carried out an analysis to verify whether or not the platform complied with these obligations and we verified a widespread non-compliance with a set of obligations”, explained Rosário Tereso.
For the association, the corrective measures to be imposed on the platform must include, for example, the “redesign of the user interface architecture, eliminating manipulative practices”, the implementation of a rigorous process that guarantees the presentation of mandatory information about sellers and also the implementation of robust mechanisms for the protection of minors.
In the association’s understanding, “since the platform facilitates the resale of tickets at speculative prices, this reason alone, and given the risk of serious harm to consumers, would have long ago justified restricting access to the online platform [‘online’]possibly even a temporary closure, until at least the platform guaranteed compliance with the legislation, which has not yet happened”, highlighted the person in charge.
Rosário Tereso also warned of the lack of a sanctioning regime in Portugal, applicable to violations of digital rights, as the proposed law has not yet been approved.
“It’s a good thing that this situation occurs with a platform that has a legal representative established in Ireland, because at this moment, if the representative were established in Portugal, the digital services coordinator could have his hands tied”, he pointed out.