Status: 03/31/2022 1:47 pm
A voucher instead of cash – a concert ticket buyer didn’t want to be satisfied with this. But the TJ contradicted: The consumer must expect that he cannot rescind the purchase contract.
By Luisa Klink, Legal Department at ARD
Anyone who buys a concert ticket from a ticketing agent via the Internet cannot revoke the purchase agreement within 14 days. The European Court of Justice ruled that.
A woman who bought a ticket to a Peter Maffay concert on the CTS Eventim ticketing platform complained. The concert is expected to take place in March 2020. However, it was canceled due to the corona pandemic. Evenim then sent him a voucher. But the woman wanted her money back. She said she could revoke the purchase agreement and ultimately sued the Bremen District Court.
No right of withdrawal
Since European law was at stake, the court referred the case to the ECJ. He has already made it clear: if a consumer buys a ticket online from an intermediary like Eventim, he cannot return it within 14 days and have the purchase price refunded. It is therefore crucial that the economic risk also falls on the organizer if a ticket broker is involved.
There is also no right of withdrawal if the ticket was purchased directly from the organizer. Otherwise, since the beginning of the year there has been a new legal situation regarding concert tickets. In the course of the corona pandemic, the legislator introduced the so-called “voucher solution” to help the hit cultural industry. If shows were cancelled, organizers would not initially have to refund ticket money, but could issue vouchers to buyers.
Since the beginning of the year the refund
From the beginning of the year, if the consumer has not redeemed the vouchers, he can return them and obtain a refund. Consumer advice centers have created sample letters for this purpose.
(File number C-96/21)
TJ contradicts: Ticket purchase contract cannot be “simply” revoked
Luisa Klink, SWR Legal Department, March 31, 2022 3:05 pm