Judgment on Presale Fees Defeat for ticket retailer CTS Eventim

As of: 06/09/2021 5:24 p.m.

Are ticket retailers allowed to keep advance booking fees for concerts that have been canceled due to corona? The Munich Regional Court has declared a clause ineffective that excludes a refund. However, there is no general claim. Several CTS Eventim customers are upset. You had booked a concert at the ticket dealer early on, which was then canceled due to Corona. Nevertheless, CTS Eventim withheld the advance booking fee. Now they want the fee back. The North Rhine-Westphalia consumer center therefore took it to court and sued the company. With success: the consumer advocates were partially right at the Munich I Regional Court. The judges declared ineffective a clause in which the company had excluded a reimbursement of the advance booking fee if the event was canceled or postponed. A corresponding sentence in the general terms and conditions is illegal.

It depends on the contracts

In the opinion of the court, the ticket retailer must bear the risk of an event alone and should not pass costs on to the customers if the event does not take place. After all, the dealer collects a commission if an event goes off successfully, the judges argue. In addition, the amount of the advance booking fee is often not visible in the ticket prices, the court complained. This is not transparent. However, the judgment, which is not yet final, does not mean that all customers are now entitled to a refund of the advance booking fees for the concert that has been canceled due to Corona. That depends on the respective design of the contracts. CTS Eventim would only be responsible for the reimbursement at a commercial agency. Eventim arranges event tickets either through a commercial agency or through an organizer through a commission. In the latter case, the concert promoter would be responsible for the reimbursement. “We are assuming that in a large number of cases Eventim wrongly withheld amounts of money,” said Wolfgang Schuldzinski, board member of the consumer advice center in North Rhine-Westphalia. Now those affected who are in dispute with the group could ask it to pay and refer to the judgment.

CTS Eventim suffers from the lull in concerts

The dispute over the advance booking fee shows how tense the situation in the concert event industry is. The largest German ticket retailer CTS Eventim is suffering from the unusual concerts and events. In the first quarter of this year, sales collapsed by almost 90 percent compared to the same period in the previous year. The Bremen company slipped into the red. The number of employees including temporary workers fell by almost a third. Nevertheless, CEO Klaus-Peter Schulenberg does not give up hope of a new start soon. He relies on the “longing of people to experience culture together”. The more people vaccinated, the greater the chance of concerts.

Member price increases offend public anger There are routines behind the price increase Why does the price increase of video site members arouse the nerves of the majority of netizens? Faced with the problems raised by Film Critic Today, Shi Yedong admitted that the price increase this time was not low. Netizens generally complained that video sites did not provide so many high-quality content that everyone was willing to pay. Chinese consumers have always been willing to pay. The willingness to consume cultural products is not strong. From continuous annual subscriptions, seasonal subscriptions, monthly subscriptions to specific levels of film and television VIPs, the names of video website members seem to be suspected of playing word games. In this regard, Shi Yedong continued to tell “Today Film Critics” that video sites tend to induce mass consumption at very low prices in the first month and year of membership, and raise prices during the next renewal, and they themselves are not. Not so concerned about the voice of consumers, because although certain consumers will be lost due to price increases, their total income will increase instead. Many netizens reacted fiercely to the price increase of members on video sites, and even bluntly said that they would not renew their membership. In response to the disgust of netizens, Shi Yedong pointed out to “Film Critic Today” that when members watch videos, there are problems such as exclusive advertisements, clarity of goods and mismatched boards, etc. In fact, the public is usually dissatisfied, and some people who have attracted audiences to become members in the past The decline in the quality of programs or the suspension of broadcasts is also “persuing” viewers. Facing the scenes of “Today Film Critic”, Shi Yedong continued to say that video site members have “super” above “normal”, and “gold”, “platinum” and “black diamond” on top of “silver”. “Members have an infinite number of routines. In the end, there will be a’Saint Seiya’ member. Do I have to keep topping up? This is a bit of a behavior of cutting leeks, and consumers will definitely have the psychology of being deceived. .” Rising prices or the only way Improve quality and promote circulation Regarding the price increase for members of video sites, Film Critic Today also specifically interviewed Chen Jing, an expert from the Beijing Film and Television Copyright Expert Appraisal Committee. In her view, according to the “Price Law of the People’s Republic of China”, most goods and services are subject to market-adjusted prices, and video websites including Tencent Video are not within the pricing catalog. Therefore, Tencent Video Sub-price increase can be understood as a freely regulated pricing behavior in the market based on production and operation costs and market supply and demand conditions. In this regard, Shi Yedong also added to “Film Critic Today” that the price increase of video sites is indeed more worrying about their own expenses and costs, because their losses are too serious, and at the same time there are not too many. There are better ways to increase income, so price increases have become an inevitable choice. “Today Film Critic” also tried to interview Tencent Video, but the platform did not respond. Is it the overlord clause or the only way to increase the price of video website members? As a guest at the “Today Film Critic” scene, Shi Yedong bluntly said that price increases are indeed the only way for video websites to increase their overall income, but consumers who don’t care about whether the website is at a loss, more often see the quality of the product. Compared with the bad effects brought about by the sky-high pay and actor matting in the past, the quality of the content of the episodes provided by video websites has made great progress in recent years. In this regard, Shi Yedong also frankly admitted to “Film Critic Today” that video websites are also reducing costs and exploring more segmented and high-quality content. “If this virtuous circle can be embarked on, it will be important for websites and consumers. All future choices are good.” It is reported that the daily broadcast column “Today’s Film Critic” in the category of film culture reviews is broadcast on CCTV-6 movie channel every Monday to Friday at 22:00. Source: 1905 Film Network