It was the same on Thursday, when the remaining contingent was made available to the public from 55 Euro on sites such as Eventim or Bonnticket. The Bonnticket website could hardly cope with the immense demand and even went offline for a short time during the hot phase. "We have never experienced this in Bonn before", said head Frank Ariza to the GA when asked. Within a minute the tickets had been sold out, more information would require a more intensive evaluation of the data.

However, shortly afterwards, the ticket offers of private providers were already bustling on online exchanges such as Ebay, Viagogo or the Eventim Fansale - at up to ten times the original price. Deutsche Telekom is proving to be quite powerless in the fight against the private sellers who want to exploit the situation and only want to enrich themselves.

Many people also suspect crooked machinations, as one reader writes to the GA. "Here, people get rich without paying taxes - and in the end, we all pay for it," he says, annoyed at the people who steal the money. On the other hand, it could also be tickets from people who, although they have taken action on their own interest, have realised too late that they are prevented from attending the event.

But the company also makes it clear that it is neither an organiser nor a ticket provider and that its hands are therefore tied. "Of course we knew that we had landed a bang with such a world star," says spokesman Malte Reinhardt. Deutsche Telekom has invested a seven-figure sum in the concert and is thus keeping its promise to bring a world star to the city in the Beethoven Year. The high demand was therefore to be expected.

Customers could buy a maximum of four tickets for the Robbie Williams concert in Bonn

For the so-called Prio tickets, customers had to identify themselves online. For reasons of data protection law, however, it was not possible to keep track of how many tickets each customer had purchased. Personalization with corresponding control is not practicable for events of this dimension. In addition, this was within the decision-making power of the event organiser, in this case Ticketmaster Entertainment based in California. Furthermore, each purchase is already limited to four tickets - this restriction could be reduced to two tickets at most. "We know and condemn the phenomenon of extortionate ticket prices in fan sales." However, this is by no means unique to Robbie Williams, but is an industry-wide problem.

The private resale of a concert ticket is generally not prohibited and could not be prosecuted, even if the general terms and conditions of a ticket portal would preclude it. This is what the Cologne lawyer Niklas Haberkamm writes on the website of his law firm.

Even against the almost ten times higher price of the tickets one would have nothing in hand. The only limit is the legally defined crime of usury, "in which someone, taking advantage of a predicament, can secure a consideration that is conspicuously disproportionate to his own performance. In 2019, the Hanover Regional Court ruled that the resale of event tickets with a surcharge of more than 25 per cent may be anti-competitive under certain circumstances. This was the case if a brokerage platform did not adhere to the terms of the original seller.

Platform Viagogo sued for excessive ticket prices

In connection with ticket prices that are far too high, the Viagogo platform has meanwhile made a name for itself. The Bavarian "market watchdog" from the consumer advice centre even sued it in 2018, because although it is a ticket exchange, it appears to be an official provider with its own stock. In reality, however, only private individuals sell there, and they remain anonymous. The consumer protectors saw in incomprehensible additional costs a violation of price clarity and criticised the misleading guarantee, which reinforced the official character. In the past, bounced customers repeatedly reported that they had never received tickets purchased from Viagogo.

Anyone who has not purchased a ticket for the Williams concert on the Hofgartenwiese can follow the concert live on the Internet free of charge. Deutsche Telekom will stream the concert via its platform.

Original text: Jonathan Kemper

Translation: Mareike Graepel