Years of dispute

Ö-Ticket service fees unlawful according to OLG

(Bild: P.DZIURMAN, stock.adobe.com)

There has been a new court ruling in the long-running dispute over service fees charged by the ticket platform Ö-Ticket for the purchase of tickets: the Vienna Higher Regional Court (OLG) has confirmed that the fees are unlawful.

In March 2023, the Association for Consumer Information (VKI) filed a lawsuit against CTS Eventim Austria GmbH, which operates the Ö-Ticket ticket service, on behalf of the Ministry of Social Affairs. The subject of the proceedings were clauses in the contractual terms and conditions, including those regulating service fees for the purchase of event tickets and their refund.

"Non-transparent and grossly disadvantageous"
These had previously been declared inadmissible by the Commercial Court of Vienna, which has now been confirmed by the Higher Regional Court. The court has now once again judged the provisions to be "intransparent and grossly disadvantageous because they leave consumers in the dark as to what specific services are actually provided for the service fee and what rights customers have in return".

"If a company charges an additional fee for the contractual obligations that usually have to be fulfilled anyway - and not for any additional service required in individual cases - then this is not permissible," explains lawyer Joachim Kogelman (VKI). In the event of a legally binding decision, he believes that consumers will be entitled to a refund. The ruling is not yet legally binding.