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How German ministers want to protect online ticket purchases

Once a year, consumer rights ministers from Germany's federal and state governments gather for a joint conference. This year, improving online ticket sales and better data protection measures are on the agenda.

Published: 12 June 2024 11:14 CEST

The Eventim office in Bremen

The Eventim office in Bremen. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Sina Schuldt

North Rhine-Westphalia’s consumer protection minister Silke Gorißen (CDU) will present proposals for further consumer protections for online ticket sales at the consumer ministers conference (VMK) on Thursday and Friday.

Gorißen is pushing to make online ticket sales more transparent and give consumers more rights to back out of purchases if they don’t have enough information.

Under the proposals, consumers would receive more information before purchasing tickets, such as details on the number of tickets sold by each provider and the prices for different seat categories.

Currently, ticket prices are often only visible during the purchasing process.

The ministers will also consider whether consumers should be granted a right of withdrawal when buying tickets online.

READ ALSO: How Germany is making it easier for consumers to cancel contracts

“The process of buying tickets is becoming increasingly complex and confusing, often limited to very narrow time windows,” Gorißen told DPA ahead of the conference. “I expect providers to act more in the interest of consumers. The market power of large ticket portals should not result in unclear and non-transparent sales.”

More data protection online

According to DPA, Gorißen also wants users of telecomms services to be better protected when it comes to their personal data.

NRW’s consumer minister believes providers of emails, chats, or telecommunications services should be required to put measures in place to detect malware that’s designed to steal personal information from users. This should be done at the EU level, Gorißen said.

Moreover, Gorißen says there should be more information on online safety made available through a consumer hotline.

“IT security responsibility should not solely depend on the digital competence of users,” the CDU culture minister explained. “Protection against cyberattacks must become a societal responsibility.”

READ ALSO: The German mobile companies with the best – and worst – coverage

The proposals are set to be voted on by consumer ministers on Friday.

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Germany's coalition government in deadlock over 2025 budget

Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD), the Greens and the liberal FDP, who came to power in 2021, have until July 3rd, the end of the current parliamentary term, to reach a compromise.

FDP Finance Minister Christian Lindner, a fiscal hawk, is demanding close to €30 billion in savings – which the Greens and SPD have baulked at.

The coalition has faced many rows in the past but some pundits believe this could be the one that finally blows the government apart.

“These talks will decide the coalition’s continued presence in office,” said the Süddeutsche Zeitung daily this week.

While budget discussions have been difficult before, they have never lasted this long.

“It’s much more difficult than usual,” Jacques-Pierre Gougeon, an expert on German politics at the French Institute for International and Strategic Affairs, told AFP.

He pointed to a gloomy backdrop due to Germany’s poor performance in recent times, with Europe’s biggest economy hit hard by high inflation and a manufacturing slowdown.

READ ALSO: Scholz calls on coalition to ‘pull ourselves together’

‘Tax woes’

According to the finance ministry, tax revenues for 2025 are set to be €11 billion lower than originally forecast.

A ruling by the country’s top court in November that the coalition had contravened the constitutionally enshrined “debt brake”, a self-imposed cap on annual borrowing, has also limited room for new spending.

In addition, all three parties are increasingly worried about their own levels of support after doing badly at this month’s EU elections – in which the opposition conservative CDU-CSU bloc came first, with the far-right AfD second.

A key sticking point in discussions centres on unemployment benefits.

Lindner wants to restrict the current payouts, which he believes are too expensive and do not provide enough of an incentive to get people to return to work.

But the SPD won’t accept this. Improving benefits was central to the party’s 2021 election campaign as they sought to win back support of lower-income voters.

“Politically, the Social Democrats cannot afford to give it up,” said Gougeon.

READ ALSO: What the EU elections say about the state of politics in Germany

There is also disagreement about any measures affecting diplomacy and defence, at a time when Germany is seeking to stand up for liberal, European values and overhaul its creaking military in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Defence Minister Boris Pistorius is calling for an increase in his ministry’s budget, and for military spending not to be covered by the debt brake.

‘Debt disagreement’

“It would be disastrous to have to say in a few years’ time: we saved the debt brake at the expense of Ukraine and the European security order,” said Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, from the Greens.

While calls have grown for the debt rules to be relaxed, Lindner and the FDP categorically refuse to countenance any changes.

Maintaining the brake is an “existential question” for the party, according to Gougeon.

READ ALSO: What is Germany’s debt brake and how does it affect residents?

Lindner did however promise on Wednesday not to push for any savings in defence.

Scholz, Lindner and Economy Minister Robert Habeck, from the Greens, are due to meet Sunday in an attempt to make progress.

The aim is to prevent “the budget crisis from turning into a crisis of confidence”, which could lead to new elections, according to the left-leaning daily TAZ.

The parties may ultimately compromise as the alternative — a collapse of the government – will not be in their favour.

They “know that they would be swept aside if there were new elections, and will want to avoid them”, said Gougeon.

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