A court in Paris has reaffirmed its decision to order Google to prohibit the sale of advertisements to unauthorised ticket resale platforms.
French authorities initially made the order back in 2020, on the basis that Google were allowing advertising from websites including Viagogo.fr, stubhub.fr, and rocket-ticket.com, which offered a platform to resell tickets without authorisation from the rightsholder. In France, it is illegal to market tickets without such authorisation.
As part of this initial ruling, the French court acknowledged Google’s liability for the development of a market ‘harmful to producers and organisers’ of events. It also ruled that Google was liable for reputational damage to events professionals, as consumers would be given ‘the false idea that producers and organisers of shows benefit from the artificial increase of prices.’ Consequently, the Court prohibited Google from authorising the purchase of advertising keywords relating to the sale of tickets for shows, unless the purchaser can prove that he has written authorisation from the producers of said shows.
Unhappy with this decision, Google appealed. But that appeal has now failed, with the court reasserting its order, and fining Google €300,000.
Google are a major player when it comes to ticket touting, with the ads that platforms like viagogo take out often appearing above official ticket listings and steering consumers towards touts. When Google imposed a brief ban on advertising from viagogo in 2019, visits to the global site went down by nearly two thirds. This is therefore a significant ruling, since Google’s role is rarely emphasised in official forums.