AGCOM has fined three companies for selling tickets to shows in Italy without being the holder of the system that issues them: €1,465,000 for a travel agency in Reggio Emilia and €90,000 for each of two platforms. All three figures come from the same calculation: the legal minimum of €5,000 multiplied by every event on record.
What happened
The rule is Article 1, comma 545, of legge 11 dicembre 2016, n. 232, as amended by Article 6, comma 2, of decreto-legge 28 febbraio 2025, n. 19, converted into law by legge 24 aprile 2025, n. 60. It penalises «*la vendita o qualsiasi altra forma di collocamento di titoli di accesso ad attività di spettacolo effettuata da soggetto diverso dai titolari [...] dei sistemi per la loro emissione*»: selling or placing tickets to shows without being the holder of the system that issues them. The stated aims: tackling avoidance and tax evasion, protecting consumers and safeguarding public order.
The consequences: an order to stop the conduct and a fine of between €5,000 and €180,000; and if it is done through electronic communication networks, under the terms of comma 546, removal of the content or, in the most serious cases, blocking of the website.
The largest case is delibera n. 103/26/CONS, adopted at the Council meeting of 29 April 2026: €1,465,000 for "I Viaggi del Bombeo S.r.l.", a single-member company based in Castellarano (Reggio Emilia).
The case did not originate from a resale website, but from a referral by the Guardia di Finanza dated 16 September 2025: the force examined the billing flow of primary resellers to identify those who «*attraverso l'utilizzo di sistemi fraudolenti hanno acquisito [...] un quantitativo sproporzionato di biglietti tali da potersi considerare "acquirenti anomali"*»: anomalous buyers.
Between 1 January 2022 and 30 May 2025, the company sold or placed tickets through its website www.bombeo.it. Alongside regular holiday packages, it offered "bus service + ticket" or "ticket only" packages for the main events held in Italy during that period. In the two concerts it checked, the Guardia di Finanza found a mark-up of €5 to €6 over face value.
The Guardia di Finanza's report describes «*un articolato sistema di bagarinaggio sistematico e fraudolento, strutturato per eludere le regole di vendita*», backed by a «*box office compiacente*»: an obliging box office. AGCOM classed it as a commercial activity given the volume of transactions and the time span, and established the infringement across 293 events, listed one by one with artist, date and venue.
The other two came out of the same Council meeting, held on 26 February 2026. Delibera n. 42/26/CONS imposes a €90,000 fine on Ticketoo S.r.l., based in Rome and described as a ticket resale platform, for 18 music events held on Italian territory. Delibera n. 43/26/CONS imposes a further €90,000 on TicketSwap International B.V., based in Amsterdam, also for 18 events.
How the fine is calculated
| Resolution | Penalised party | Council meeting | Events on record | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delibera n. 103/26/CONS | "I Viaggi del Bombeo S.r.l." (Castellarano, Reggio Emilia) | 29 April 2026 | 293 | €1,465,000 |
| Delibera n. 42/26/CONS | Ticketoo S.r.l. (Rome) | 26 February 2026 | 18 | €90,000 |
| Delibera n. 43/26/CONS | TicketSwap International B.V. (Amsterdam) | 26 February 2026 | 18 | €90,000 |
The mechanism lies in the arithmetic. AGCOM concluded that the conduct did not amount to a single unified act, because it failed to meet the twin requirement of «*contestualità degli atti*» and «*unicità del fine o dell'effetto*» set out in the Linee guida of delibera n. 265/15/CONS, of 28 April 2015. Without unified conduct there is no single penalty: the cumulo materiale under Article 8 of Law 689/1981 applies instead, and each event counts as a separate infringement with its own fine. Set at the legal minimum of €5,000, 293 events come to €1,465,000 and 18 events come to €90,000. Three cases, the same multiplier.
The level of the fine is set under Article 11 of Law 689/1981: seriousness, action taken to mitigate the consequences, the offender's character and financial standing. AGCOM classed the conduct as moderately serious. In favour of a higher fine was the fact that unauthorised selling «*sottrae risorse al fisco*» and gives an unfair advantage over authorised operators; against it, that the resale price was only slightly above face value. The 2025 VAT return, for the 2024 tax period, shows a turnover of €2,099,505, meaning the fine amounts to around 70% of it; AGCOM noted that selling tickets is not the company's main activity, since it also offers other services typical of travel agencies.
Ticketoo asked for the cumulo giuridico to be applied instead of the materiale, and, as a fallback, for the fine to be calculated on 16 events rather than 18: it argued that two were held in venues with capacity below 5,000 spectators, where the law does not require named tickets. AGCOM kept the 18 events and the cumulo materiale. The AGCM — Autorità garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato — gave its favourable opinion on 21 April 2026. Payment is due within thirty days of notification, with an order not to repeat the conduct. The ordinanze can be appealed.
Why it matters
The Italian fine does not measure the harm: it measures the inventory. All three rulings apply the same €5,000 minimum and multiply it by events. An international platform paid €90,000 for 18; a travel agency in Castellarano paid sixteen times more for having touched 293. The mark-up confirmed in the two test-purchase concerts was €5 or €6 per ticket, and AGCOM factored that in when classing the conduct as moderately serious. Exposure grows with the number of events, not with the margin. The Spanish debate runs along a different axis: the price of resale.
The entry point wasn't a resale platform either: it was a holiday package. "Bus + ticket" is the classic format for a concert excursion, and in Italy that's enough to fall foul of comma 545 if you're not the holder of the issuing system. That puts travel agencies, fan clubs, supporters' groups and coach operators on the radar.
Two more details matter for promoters. The first: the «box office compiacente» described by the Guardia di Finanza. Control over who buys in bulk doesn't rest solely with the platform — it rests with the authorised point of sale. The second: the detection method. The investigation didn't start from the reseller's website, but from the billing flow of primary resellers. Whoever sells tickets in Italy generates the trail used to investigate their buyers.
What to do about this
- Check who is buying in bulk through your primary sale. The trail the Guardia di Finanza used was the primary reseller's billing data: the pattern is in your own numbers.
- Review who you're allocating blocks of tickets to. A bus-plus-ticket package falls under comma 545 if the seller isn't the holder of the issuing system.
- If you sell in Italy, check the issuing regime first with the guide to selling tickets in Italy.
- Don't count on venue capacity as a loophole. AGCOM rejected Ticketoo's argument about venues with fewer than 5,000 seats and kept all 18 events.
- Set per-buyer limits and written cancellation criteria — the work of controlling resale starts at the primary sale.