Tickets anger at extra costs

angered about their ethics.”

A third client bought eight tickets to see Little Mix at Leeds Arena and was charged £67 per ticket – £536 in total – plus an additional fee of £24 per ticket – £142 in total. When their tickets arrived in the post they had a face value of £25 each and a booking fee of £3 each.

Kirsty Dickinson, campaigns manager for Kirklees Citizens Advice, tried a test purchase and found that the booking fees were only verified on the payment screen and only visible by scrolling down the page.

“You have to scroll down to find it,” she said. “At the same time, there’s a clock saying that if you don’t purchase the ticket by a certain time you will lose it, so there is added pressure to buy.”

Sam Heaton, a volunteer at the Dewsbury office who has carried out research into Viagogo, said the company was not breaking rules because its terms and conditions stated that people booking tickets agreed to the fees imposed.

But she added: “It is not transparent.

“The terms and conditions are at the bottom of the webpage.

“Companies like Viagogo need to be more transparent with their charges.

“They are not as clear as they could be.

“When someone has saved up to attend a particular event it causes extra issues for them financially.”

Viagogo – which styles itself as “the ticket marketplace” – incurred the wrath of MPs when it failed to send a representative to give evidence this Tuesday to a Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee hearing into ticket touting.