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Who does (illicit?) business with Colosseum tickets

7 days ago babelfish

Who does (illicit?) business with Colosseum tickets

CoopCulture's commercial practices for the sale of tickets for entry into the Colosseum archaeological park under the lens of the Antitrust Authority. All the details

Visiting the monuments of central Rome, starting with the Colosseum, is becoming increasingly difficult and tickets for the main attractions increasingly unobtainable. The reason is not only found in the recovery of tourism after the restrictions due to the Covid 19 pandemic but also in alleged illicit activities in the sale of entrance tickets. The Competition and Market Authority wants to see clearly and has started an investigation against Società Cooperativa Culture (CoopCulture), Musement, GetYourGuide, Tiqets and Viator. At the center of the investigation is the ticket sales service for the Colosseum Archaeological Park, which includes the areas of the Flavian Amphitheatre-Colosseum, the Palatine Hill, the Roman Forum and the Domus Aurea.

TICKETS TO THE COLISEUM ARCHAEOLOGICAL PARK: COOPCULTURE'S COMMERCIAL PRACTICES UNDER THE LENS OF THE AGCM

The AGMC, in the weekly bulletin of 11 September, writes that "from information acquired" the companies Cooperativa Culture (CoopCulture), Musement, GetYourGuide, Tiqets and Viator " in the context of offering services for the sale of entrance tickets to the Colosseum Archaeological Park, would have implemented, starting at least from November 2022, commercial practices likely to violate consumer protection legislation".

THE FACTS IN THE AGCM BULLETIN

The AGCM investigation starts from press reports according to which after 2022 and the passing of the pandemic phase, the availability of tickets for the visit to the archaeological park of the Colosseum and the Roman Forum has become increasingly difficult. The reasons? On the one hand "no physical ticket office had been reopened at the entrances of the sites until May 2023", on the other "the tickets issued by the official reseller, CoopCulture, via the online platform, sell out within a few minutes of being put online, since no mechanisms would have been adopted to limit hoarding procedures by automatic ticket purchasing systems".

TICKETS TO ACCESS THE COLISEUM NOT AVAILABLE ON THE WEBSITE OF THE OFFICIAL SELLER COOPCULTURE

Tickets for the Colosseum Archaeological Park would never be available on the website of the official seller, CoopCulture, but only on the platforms of other operators such as GetYourGuide, Viator, Tiqets, Musement who would purchase them thanks to the use of automatic ticket purchasing systems (the “bots”), and then resell them at a higher price on their channels. But it doesn't end there because tourists who turn to these secondary channels to purchase tickets often have to purchase associated services such as a tourist guide. “There is one thing that perhaps is not clear to everyone and is underestimated – explains Letizia Casuccio, general director of Coopculture to AdnKronos – The Colosseum is a monument with limited entry, for security reasons. 3000 people can enter at the same time, and in some moments the demand certainly exceeds even double the possible supply. Often this limit is not known, and yet it is important to know it."

THE EXTENSION OF THE CONCESSION TO COOPCULTURE FOR THE COLISEUM AND MORE

Since 1997, the ticketing service of the Colosseum Archaeological Park has been managed by CoopCulture, which had obtained the concession based on the Ronchey law (Law no. 433/1992) for four years. The concession was then extended for the first time in 2001, as foreseen in the original contract, and then, by way of derogation, again in 2005. Since then CoopCulture has always remained in place because since 2010 the extensions have become annual "as the three tenders called in 2010, 2017 and 2019 were withdrawn or canceled as a result of jurisdictional rulings".

CNS WINS THE TENDER CALLED BY CONSIP BUT COOPCULTURE REMAINS IN ITS PLACE

Things changed in 2022 when Consip announced an open tender for the contracting out of the ticketing service. The decision came following the approval of a collaborative supervisory action protocol between the National Anti-Corruption Authority (ANAC), the Ministry of Culture and Consip. Last 26 April 2023, the CNS (National Consortium of Services) was awarded the tender but has not yet started its activity due to the appeals presented by the other companies participating in the tender, including CoopCulture which, in fact, did not has never stopped managing the sale of tickets for the Colosseum Archaeological Park.

COOPCULTURE'S COUNTERMOVIES

The CoopCulture company, starting from May 30, 2023, has adopted some measures to combat the phenomenon of secondary ticketing (the secondary ticket market):

  • “reopening of a physical ticket office near the entrance to the Colosseum Archaeological Park;
  • the obligation to make a nominative purchase for online purchases;
  • the introduction of a robot blocking system via simple recaptcha (consisting of placing a mark – the so-called flag – on the writing " I am not a robot ", without, therefore, the need to identify images or alpha-numeric strings)".

But, according to the AGCM bulletin , "CoopCulture does not appear to have introduced any limit to the number of tickets that can be purchased by each buyer", so much so that even "at the beginning of July 2023, the difficulty/impossibility of purchasing tickets for the Colosseum Archaeological Park on the official website at the base price of 16 euros, as on that website the availability of tickets ran out a few minutes after issue, while tickets continued to be available on the websites of other operators, at prices equal to more double the original price."

POSSIBLE UNLAWFUL COMMERCIAL PRACTICES

The AGCM's investigations therefore continued and identified possible profiles of illicit commercial practices. First of all, "CoopCulture, as an official reseller, appears not to have set up suitable systems to avoid the hoarding of tickets put up for sale by alternative resellers, with the consequent exhaustion of tickets on its site immediately after issue". Secondly, "having allowed the systematic hoarding of such tickets by alternative operators, with a consequent increase in their price, appears to constitute conduct contrary to the ordinary duties of professional diligence referred to in the art. 20 of the Consumer Code". Finally, “GetYourGuide, Viator, Tiqets and Musement appear to have systematically made massive purchases of the tickets in question through the use of automatic systems, and then resold them at significantly increased prices, in violation of the art. 23, paragraph 1, bb-bis) of the Consumer Code, as well as articles. 24 and 25 of the Consumer Code".

This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/chi-fa-affari-illeciti-con-i-biglietti-del-colosseo/ on Mon, 18 Sep 2023 15:15:54 +0000.