Event visit with tickets from "black market" - Is that possible?

In legal terms, there are two types of tickets:

1. small bearer securities within the meaning of § 807 BGB: You obligate the exhibitor (organizer) in principle to the performance to the respective owner, ie, the one who holds the ticket is entitled to the fact that he is granted access to the respective event.

2. Registered papers with proprietary clause (colloquially often also referred to as "personalized tickets") within the meaning of § 808 BGB: From them themselves there is no claim to access to the event. Rather, it follows directly from the viewer contract between the first purchaser (!) Of the ticket and the organizer.

The legal classification of each ticket is of considerable importance for answering the question as to whether you, as the second buyer of the same - for example through the "black market" (viagogo, ebay, etc.) - are entitled to access the event.

If the respective entrance ticket is a small bearer document within the meaning of § 807 BGB, the transfer takes place on resale according to §§ 929 ff. BGB. Even if the General Ticket Terms and Conditions (ATGB) of the organizer should contain prohibitions on the sale, they only have an effect vis-à-vis the contractual partner of the organizer, ie the first purchaser. § 137 BGB but not to the second buyer to whom the first buyer has resold the ticket. In these cases, the second purchaser, as the holder of the ticket, is entitled to access the event.

However, under certain circumstances, it may look different if the respective ticket is a so-called registered document with a holder clause within the meaning of § 808 BGB. Here, the transfer takes place by assignment of the creditor position acc. §§ 398, 952 para. 2 BGB. Disposal bans in the ATGB in these cases constitute a contractual assignment exclusion in the sense of § 399 Alt. 2 BGB and thus apply in principle to the second purchaser.

Admittedly, such prohibitions on disposal regulated by ATGB must always be measured against §§ 307 ff. BGB and may be invalid. Nevertheless, caution should be exercised with tickets that are designed as registered papers with a proprietary clause. It may well happen (see the case "Ed Sheeran concert") that the second buyer is denied access to the event (rightly).

If you also have problems with the purchase / resale of tickets, please contact our office by phone, email or arrange a personal meeting at our offices in Regensburg or Landshut.