Adele tickets on eBay, classifieds, Viagogo: 12,000 euros for an Adele ticket

Highlights: Adele tickets on eBay, classifieds, Viagogo: 12,000 euros for an Adele ticket – is that legal?. When the resale of tickets is permitted and what traps buyers can fall into: an overview. The industry loses an estimated 13 billion euros every year, which goes past artists, organizers and stage technicians. When officially available tickets are sold out, prices skyrocket. No matter whether it's Backstreet Boys, Taylor Swift or Adele: concert tickets are often offered at online flea markets for many times the original price.

Tickets for Adele's concerts in Germany are almost sold out and the black market is flourishing. When the resale of tickets is permitted and what traps buyers can fall into: an overview.

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Adele at a concert in Germany in 2015: Advance sales for the performances in Munich are ongoing

Photo: Henning Kaiser/dpa

Advance sales of tickets for pop singer Adele's performances in Munich are chaotic. The free sales for the summer concerts were actually supposed to start promptly at ten o'clock on Friday morning.

Instead, panic broke out at the ticket offices:

On Thursday at 5:48 p.m., the Eventim ticket platform announced frantically via email that the tickets would go on sale just 42 minutes later.

Eventim cites the high demand as the reason. Ticketmaster started advance sales on Thursday at 2 p.m. Tens of thousands of fans joined virtual queues to get concert tickets. After just a few minutes, the offers in the cheapest category between 75 and 120 euros were sold out. On Friday morning there were only a few premium tickets left, with prices starting at 334.90 euros.

Where is the problem?

Fans who are late or far back in the online queues are particularly affected by high black market prices. When officially available tickets are sold out, prices skyrocket. No matter whether it's Backstreet Boys, Taylor Swift or Adele: concert tickets are often offered at online flea markets for many times the original price. According to the lobby association Feat, tickets there are on average 250 percent more expensive than at the official ticket offices.

"The rise of the Internet has led to the growth of a huge, money-hungry ticket resale industry," the website says. Black market dealers would collect hundreds of tickets to resell to fans at exorbitant prices. The artist alliance has set itself the goal that in the future tickets may only be sold at the original price. The industry loses an estimated 13 billion euros every year, which goes past artists, organizers and stage technicians.

Can I resell my ticket online?

Yes – under certain conditions. “The private sale of tickets is permitted,” says lawyer Marcus Beckmann to SPIEGEL. "If I resell tickets, there's nothing wrong with that." Not even if the price is set significantly higher than the original price. According to the online law expert, the threshold for usury is difficult to determine. "I wouldn't necessarily speak of usury even if it were 300 euros for a 100 euro ticket." Ultimately, the accusation of usury would also have to take advantage of a predicament. “Organizers don’t like resale, but they can’t do much about it in the private sector,” says Beckmann.

When should I expect a warning?

Anyone who overdoes it with private ticket sales runs the risk of being classified as a commercial dealer - then resale would be illegal. According to lawyer Beckmann, this happens pretty quickly. “A certain regularity is enough.” Years of trading are not necessary. "The threshold is lower than you think." Where exactly the limit to commercial trade lies is a decision on a case-by-case basis. What doesn't change anything is writing in the text of the sales advertisement that it is a private sale.

What are organizers doing?

The organizers are almost powerless. Some ticket terms and conditions state that resale is prohibited or that the ticket may only be sold at a set price. But whether this also applies to private sellers is questionable. “This has not yet been finally clarified by the Supreme Court,” says lawyer Beckmann. This is all very vague. “Nobody can tell you whether such a clause applies.”

Can I resell a personalized ticket?

According to Marcus Beckmann, resale becomes difficult if the tickets are personalized. If such cards were offered on the Internet, organizers would also take action against them. “I’ve experienced that many times,” says the legal expert. This is always the case, especially with football tickets. In addition, the risk for sellers that the buyer will be turned away at the entrance increases. "As a seller, you get into trouble if you sell personalized tickets - and the buyer doesn't come in."

For example, the ticket portal Eventim relies on a digital pass with an app requirement when pre-selling tickets for Adele, as it did for Taylor Swift performances. With this system, fans will not receive the tickets by post or email, but must be downloaded into the Eventim app and presented with the app at the entrance. With such funds, Eventim supports the fight against the secondary market, says a spokesman. Fans are allowed to sell their concert tickets on the Eventim resale platform “Fansale”, even for three times the original price. Eventim also earns money from this and keeps ten percent of the sales price as a service fee.

What do ticket buyers have to pay attention to on Ebay, classified ads and the like?

Basically, the same problems can arise when buying tickets at online flea markets as when buying second-hand clock radios, bicycles and computers: you are never 100 percent safe from fraudsters. However, there are a few things you should pay attention to in order to be able to assess whether you are dealing with a reputable provider. You should be skeptical if the offer is too good. The alarm bells should also ring if the seller builds up pressure, only accepts PayPal friends payments and if there are no legitimate-looking user reviews.

What do classified ads and the like do about excessive prices?

The portal operators rarely take action against moon prices. The problem: It is difficult to judge whether the offer is excessive. “We ourselves have no influence on pricing,” says Pierre Du Bois. This is impossible due to the large number of events. “Ticket prices of several hundred euros per ticket are no longer uncommon for popular artists,” says Du Bois.

People trust that “supply and demand will come into balance.” Anyone who overshoots the price will be left with nothing, says Du Bois. But apparently not everything goes through: “If we discover that someone is selling tickets on a large scale, we regularly delete them.” Then there is a suspicion that the ticket is being traded commercially. Classifieds also investigate indications of usury.

Does buyer protection also apply to tickets?

At PayPal, buyer protection applies to both digital and printed tickets, a company spokeswoman confirmed to SPIEGEL. However, cards sent by post must be sent insured. If the ticket is not valid upon entry, “Clearly does not correspond to the description” must be selected when applying for buyer protection. You should also confirm directly at the concert that entry was refused due to an invalid ticket.

Classifieds, however, does not protect the trading of digital tickets: the portal only protects buyers using the “secure payment” function if the tickets are physical. Digital admission tickets are not covered by the flea market portal’s in-house buyer protection. “This would at least protect the case that the buyer does not receive the tickets,” says company spokesman Du Bois.

What about Viagogo and Co?

Online platforms that specialize in ticket resale, such as Viagogo, are a thorn in the side of consumer advocates and the music industry. “Criminal players are always involved in this business and ensure that cheated fans lose their trust in the concert industry,” said the Federal Association of the Event Industry a few weeks ago. The consumer advice centers are also taking tough action against the ticket exchange Viagogo. The prices for tickets there are on average three times higher, the platform “also collects opaque fees” and presents itself misleadingly as an official ticket sales portal.

The Viagogo operators see it differently. The company rejects "any connection between Viagogo and the ticket black market," a spokesman told SPIEGEL when asked. There is a guarantee that Viagogo “will step in to find replacement tickets or offer a full refund in the very rare event of a problem.” But this is necessary for less than 0.02 percent of ticket sales. Viagogo stays out of the pricing. That's in the hands of the sellers: "The fans ultimately decide on the price that corresponds to their budget."

Adele tickets on eBay, classifieds, Viagogo: 12,000 euros for an Adele ticket – is that legal?