The 33rd Civil Chamber of the Regional Court of Munich I, which is responsible in particular for trade mark and unfair competition law, has ruled on an action brought by the applicant. On 4 June 2019, the 33rd Civil Chamber of the Regional Court of Munich I ruled on an action brought by against viagogo AG, which operates a ticket platform at www.viagogo.de (Case No. 33 O 6588/17). ticket platform at (Case No. 33 O 6588/17).
The action is successful for the most part.
The legal dispute was triggered by complaints from consumers to the consumer advice centre. The consumers had previously been denied access to events with tickets purchased from the defendant. to events, such as a football match of TSV 1860 Munich, because the tickets were invalid. Munich, because the tickets were invalid.
This was contrary to the eye-catching guarantee displayed during the ordering process on www.viagogo.de: "All tickets on our site come with a 100% guarantee. What does that mean for you? You buy with certainty. We guarantee you valid tickets to the event!"
Conditions of the guarantee must be stated
The Chamber has now ordered viagogo to refrain from advertising tickets with an eye-catching guarantee unless the exact terms of the guarantee are stated in close proximity to the guarantee.
Warranty must be honoured
Further, the defendant shall refrain from advertising tickets by guaranteeing the delivery of "valid tickets" when in fact the ticket does not provide the right to attend the event.
Identity of the seller must be stated before purchase
According to the judgement, the defendant must also refrain from enabling the sale of admission tickets on the website www.viagogo.de without informing a buyer of the identity and address of the seller in good time before the buyer's contractual declaration in the case of sellers acting in an entrepreneurial capacity and immediately after the buyer's contractual declaration in the case of sellers not acting in an entrepreneurial capacity. In the board's view, this is information that is essential for the consumer to make an informed decision. According to the chamber, the identity and address of a private seller must only be communicated immediately after the conclusion of the contract due to the limited claim to anonymity under Section 13 (6) of the German Telemedia Act (TMG) - unlike for business sellers.
E-mail address required in the imprint - contact form is not sufficient
Finally, viagogo must provide an email address on the website. provide. The provision of a contact form, which requires the user to registration of the user does not satisfy the statutory imprint requirements. The court held that the provision of a contact form, which first requires the user to register, does not satisfy the statutory imprint requirements.
Only the fact that the defendant does not provide any information on its persons authorised to represent the company on its website was not considered by the as an infringement of the law of unfair competition. In this respect, the otherwise the complaint, which was otherwise well-founded.
Source: Press release of the LG Munich I from 04.06.2019
