Italy’s antitrust authorities are opening an investigation into unfair and possibly illegal ticket operations to visit Rome’s Colosseum and other venues.
Italy’s most popular tourist venue, the Colosseum, attracts millions of visitors each year, but it has been increasingly difficult—at times impossible– to buy tickets online.
It seems that big tour companies scoop them up on the official website weeks in advance and then repackage them as much more expensive guided tours.
The competition watchdog is probing the official vendor Società Cooperativa Culture (CoopCulture), Musement, GetYourGuide, Tiqets and Viator in relation to claims that tickets for the Colosseum Archaeological Park, which include entry to the Flavian Amphitheatre, the Palatine, the Roman Forum and the Domus Aurea, are not available online from the former since they are being bought up by secondary ticketing platforms for resale.
“CoopCulture seems not to have put in place appropriate systems to avoid the hoarding of tickets…thus depriving consumers of the possibility to buy tickets at the ordinary price,” the authority said.
A ticket normally costs 18 euros ($20) but the official website on Tuesday showed there were just three places left until Aug. 7. By contrast, websites of local guide companies were offering numerous tours ranging from 37.50-74.00 euros.
CoopCulture “has systems in place to counter (ticket) purchases in bulk”, the group’s Director General Letizia Casuccio said in an emailed statement to Reuters.
ANSA/ALESSANDRO DI MEO
“We hope that clarity will soon be made,” she said, adding the company had always been available to the relevant authorities to challenge the resale of tickets at higher prices.
Carlo Rienzi, the head of consumers rights body Codacons, said “secondary ticketing” was costing Italy millions of euros.
“We ask the government to introduce new provisions capable not only of blocking secondary ticketing, but also of imposing very heavy penalties on those sites,” Rienzi said in a statement.
Colosseum Archaeological Park director Alfonsina Russo, commenting to ANSA on the news, said,”About time too!”
“Last year I filed a complaint with the postal police about these hoardings. It all started from there,” she continued, adding that the finance police are also conducting an investigation.
“I believe these are the first results,” said Russo.
