• Beware messages: price for a concert ticket “from PLN 100”. At the final stage of the order, it may turn out that even for the cheapest ticket you will pay more because the website will add a mandatory fee.
• President of UOKiK has charged eBilet with misleading consumers as to the actual price of the tickets offered.
• Eventim and Ticketmaster have been called to change their practices.

President of UOKiK Tomasz Chróstny has examined online websites selling tickets for sports, cultural and entertainment events. The method of presenting prices that does not include all mandatory charges at the initial stages of the transaction gives rise to some doubts. The President of the Office has therefore taken action against three entrepreneurs.

- At each stage of reading the offer, a consumer must have some reliable information about the price. This is a very important factor affecting a purchasing decision. The price should be presented in a clear and legible manner and it may not be misleading. It must be stated gross and include all mandatory fees - says Tomasz Chróstny, President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection.

Charges against eBilet Polska

UOKiK has received signals concerning possible irregularities when presenting ticket prices for cultural and entertainment events on the ebilet.pl website. At the initial stages of searching for tickets and reading the offer, a consumer is informed on minimum prices, e.g. “from PLN 100”, “from PLN 275”. Prices differ depending on the location of your seat in the audience room. Having entered a site of a specific event, the minimum price is still quoted and additionally in the explanation field marked with the letter “i” you can read that additional fees may be charged. The amount of the obligatory service fee will appear for the first time only after selecting the category and type of ticket and the location on the room layout.

UOKiK has analysed over 300 offers available on the ebilet.pl website – each time at the final stage the service fee had been added to the price. – Our current findings prove that a consumer has no chance of buying a ticket at a price defined as the minimum price. In such a situation, the entrepreneur’s marketing message may be misleading - says Tomasz Chróstny, President of UOKiK.

eBilet has not changed its practices after the so-called soft warning. Therefore, the President of the Office has charged it with violating the collective interests of consumers. If confirmed, the entrepreneur is at risk of a fine by up to 10% of their annual turnover.

Soft warnings to Eventim and Ticketmaster Poland

Similar problems with price display have been observed on two other large websites with tickets for cultural and entertainment events: eventim.pl and ticketmaster.pl. Eventim’s ticket office, at the beginning of the offer presentation stage, also shows “prices from...”. Ticketmaster, on the other hand, presents part of its offer in a similar formula - regular ticket prices. According to UOKiK’s findings, consumers on both websites are not able to buy a ticket for the minimum price presented, even if they choose the cheapest seats. In addition, there are doubts as to the terminology of the types of additional fees on ticketmaster.pl - as a result, for a consumer it is not clear how much and for what services they still have to pay. The final price to be paid is only known at the final stages of the transaction.

The President of UOKiK has sent Eventim and Ticketmaster Poland warnings, awaiting explanations and changes in their practices.

Consumer Support:

Phone: 801 440 220 or 222 66 76 76 – consumer helpline
E-mail: [SCODE]cG9yYWR5QGRsYWtvbnN1bWVudG93LnBs[ECODE]
Consumer Ombudsmen – in your town or district
European Consumer Centre - 22 55 60 600 – in cross-border cases involving the EU, Norway, Iceland and the United Kingdom