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Adele performing live at Mt Smart Stadium in Auckland, New Zealand. A disabled fan who bought the concert ticket through Viagogo for the wheelchair-accessible section instead got in gallery.
Adele performing live at Mt Smart Stadium in Auckland, New Zealand. A disabled fan who bought the concert ticket through Viagogo for the wheelchair-accessible section instead got in gallery. Photograph: Phil Walter/Getty Images
Adele performing live at Mt Smart Stadium in Auckland, New Zealand. A disabled fan who bought the concert ticket through Viagogo for the wheelchair-accessible section instead got in gallery. Photograph: Phil Walter/Getty Images

Viagogo's shady reputation grows as it shuns critics

This article is more than 7 years old

Elusive company that snubbed MPs runs its multimillion ticket resale empire from a small office in a business park in Limerick, Ireland

When controversial ticket reselling website Viagogo failed to show up for a select committee hearing this week, furious MPs were left wondering where to find the elusive company.

The answer is in a nondescript office in a business park on the outskirts of the Irish city of Limerick.

This is Viagogo’s European operations centre, where more than 100 staff work at the hub of its multi-billion pound ticket resale empire.

Executives here are just as wary of the limelight as they were of parliamentary scrutiny. When the Guardian asked the company to respond to questions, we were politely asked to leave.

Later, an employee was speaking to our reporter outside the office when a manager appeared, stopped the conversation, and ushered him inside. Minutes later the staff member, who was actually very positive about working for the company, was whisked away from the building in the back of a taxi.

Viagogo’s shyness comes as no surprise given its refusal to face the music in parliament. In its absence, MPs on the department for culture, media and sport select committee accused the company – which takes a cut of up to 25% from reselling tickets, often provided by supertouts, and often before ordinary fans even have a chance to buy – of “naked mis-selling and fraud”, “lying to the public” and “contempt for parliament”.

If Viagogo was embarrassed by the accusations, it didn’t show. Within 24 hours the company was up to its old tricks again.

Some 11,000 miles away in Auckland, New Zealand, Maiz Marshall-Amai was learning all about Viagogo’s business model. She had bought tickets to see British popstar Adele, picking seats in a wheelchair-accessible section near the stage. Instead, the tickets were up in the gallery, completely inaccessible to wheelchair users.

In a poignant tribute to Adele, Marshall-Amai’s friend Letitia Butler released a video riffing on one of the star’s biggest hits. “Hello from the outside,” she sang. “Your biggest fans can’t get inside.”

The Auckland episode extends a string of disturbing revelations about a company, whose founder Eric Baker has sought to portray himself as a consumer champion, protecting fans from touts and ticket fraud. Critics of the site suggest Viagogo is anything but a friend of the consumer.

Ed Sheeran performing on stage during the Teenage Cancer Trust series of charity gigs, at the Royal Albert Hall, in London. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA Archive/PA Images

The site has been accused of “moral repugnance” for seeking to profit from events in aid of cancer charities by popstar Ed Sheeran and comedian Peter Kay. It has been criticised for providing a conduit for touts to sell tickets at huge mark-ups to fans despite knowing that they might be denied entry. It was also faced allegations of breaching consumer rights laws and withholding refunds from overcharged customers.

On the face of it, Viagogo should be more than capable of addressing the allegations levelled against it. Indeed, the company claims that none of the criticisms are valid because it does not even sell tickets – it just provides the platform.

This multi-million dollar enterprise is technically based in Geneva, Switzerland, but also has a UK subsidiary called VGL Services with company’s address listed as Cannon Street in London’s financial district.

When the Guardian visited this office last year, Viagogo’s presence was disguised, a false name listed on hoardings in the foyer displaying the building’s tenants. A second visit this week revealed that the company has packed up and left. People who work in the building say the company moved out in January, leaving no forwarding address.

Viagogo’s abrupt departure came just a month after the Competition and Markets Authority launched a probe into whether secondary ticketing companies are complying with consumer law.

The company’s exit will be a bitter blow for members of the Facebook Victim of Viagogo group. Claire Turnham, who gave evidence at the select committee, set up the group after she was overcharged by hundreds of pounds for an Ed Sheeran gig. She told MPs of group members who had been left physically sick with worry or struggling to make ends meet after buying tickets through Viagogo.

Some of those who made the most noise on social media received refunds. Others were invited to relist their tickets on Viagogo instead, meaning the company would take a cut of the sale price.Still more victims were unable to elicit any response from the company at all.

The empty seat of Viagogo during a parliamentary hearing on ticketing abuse by the culture, media and sport committee in the House of Commons, London. Photograph: PA

One group member, Rachael Ravenhill, did find a way of contacting Viagogo though. She started an online petition calling on the firm to reimburse victims. She swiftly received a call from the company, threatening her with legal action for using their logo in the petition.

Many of the group have sent “letters before action”, a prelude to a suit in the small claims court, to the Cannon Street office. Where those letters are now is anybody’s guess.

The Viagogo empire is owned by founder Eric Baker’s private company, Pugnacious Endeavors, located in Delaware, the US state famed for corporate secrecy and tax haven status. It seems unlikely that any correspondence sent to Viagogo will be sent on to Delaware.

If MPs really want to speak to Viagogo’s bosses, they could send their invitation to Limerick. Any executives based in the city could easily make their way to London via a £35 Ryanair flight from nearby Shannon airport.

But the company’s record of failing to answer questions from disappointed customers, politicians and the media, suggests it is unlikely to take the opportunity. Viagogo declined a request for comment.

This article was amended on 25 March 2017. An earlier version used the phrase “wheelchair-bound”, contravening our style guide. This has now been removed.

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