Western Australia’s consumer watchdog is investigating a ticket sales website after tickets to Billie Eilish and Justin Bieber concerts and other Perth events were being sold for at least twice the original price – in one case nine times higher.

Ticket re-selling website Viagogo is a Switzerland-based company which claims to be an online marketplace where people can sell unwanted tickets to concerts and events at whatever price they want.

But Consumer Protection commissioner Gary Newcombe said it was the obligation of sites like Viagogo to identify illegal sales on their sites and quickly remove the offending advertisements.

WA’s Ticket Scalping Act came into effect last year, making it illegal to re‑sell a ticket to WA concerts and events for more than 110 per cent of the original price.

“Viagogo needs to do more to prevent these ads being posted on their website, as the law is broken as soon as the illegal tickets are made available to the WA public,” Newcombe said.

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“While Viagogo has removed some ads that have been brought to their attention by regulators, they need to take proactive measures ideally to detect the ads before they get posted, or have them removed as soon as possible afterwards, without waiting for others to bring them to their attention.”

The investigation also relates to tickets for the Van Gogh Alive exhibition, Harlem Globetrotters game, Super Netball Grand Final game and the Tyler, the Creator concert.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission took action against Viagogo in August 2017 for making false or misleading representations and, in October 2020, Viagogo was fined $7 million dollars by the Federal Court.