Viagogo sues Sheeran’s promoter for making fans ‘pay twice’
ED SHEERAN’S promoter is being sued by Viagogo, the secondary ticketing website, for allegedly defrauding thousands of fans by confiscating their tickets at concert venues and forcing them to buy new ones.
In court papers filed yesterday, Viagogo claims Stuart Galbraith, founder of music promoters Kilimanjaro Live Ltd, pocketed millions in a “scam”.
Kilimanjaro said the claims were ludicrous, laughable and totally false.
Mr Sheeran has criticised reselling sites and warned before his 2017 tour that tickets bought from “unauthorised” sites would not be valid.
Viagogo alleges that Mr Galbraith set up customer service booths branded with the Viagogo name, luring fans into declaring that they had bought their tickets via the site, then confiscated the legally purchased tickets and forced them to buy new ones for £80 each.
A statement issued by Viagogo claims Mr Galbraith was “paid twice by each of these customers, fraudulently pocketing millions of pounds in double revenue for the same seat”.
It also stated that about 95 per cent of customers “avoided this scam” and gained entry into the venues, and that customers who paid twice have been refunded by Viagogo at its own cost.
The company’s press release says a “comprehensive file of incontrovertible photographic and filmed evidence” will be presented to the court, supported by hundreds of witness statements.
A spokesman said: “All tickets on Viagogo are authentic. Stuart Galbraith set up fake Viagogo booths at venues and conned our customers into believing that their tickets wouldn’t work.
“We can’t believe that Ed Sheeran would knowingly permit his promoter to lie and steal and we can only imagine that Galbraith has been acting fraudulently without his artist’s knowledge.”
Both Mr Galbraith and an executive from Viagogo are due to appear today before a Commons select committee on reforms to secondary ticketing.
In a statement, Kilimanjaro said: “The claims made by Viagogo are ludicrous, laughable and, most importantly, totally false.
“This is a transparent attempt to deflect attention away from their upcoming appearance at the [Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee] inquiry and the wide-ranging criticisms, multiple legal prosecutions in many territories, and condemnation of their business practices. Kilimanjaro will defend against this action vigorously and look forward to doing so in court.”