The National Consumer Service (SERNAC) has initiated a series of inspection actions aimed at the Professional Sports Limited Companies that manage the sports clubs Azul Azul, Cruzados, and Blanco y Negrowith the aim of investigating the clauses and content of football season ticket holders’ membership contracts with their fans.
This, in relation to a series of complaints that the Service has received in various reports of non-compliance. In fact, of the 1,306 complaints related to football issues between 2023 and June 2024, one 32.77% is related to the issue of subscriptions offered by the clubs’ SADP.
What is a football season ticket?
It is a type of paid membership contract that provides certain guarantees and benefits to fans in order to be able to participate in the sporting activities of the clubs they belong to: discounts, rights to seats in stadiums, purchasing preferences, among others. These types of memberships also have categories of benefits and their costs vary depending on the football club they belong to.
In this sense, SERNAC treats the Public Limited Companies behind these contracts as “suppliers”, just like a retailer, a clothing brand or a pharmacy, so that the “fans” (consumers) can file complaints against non-compliance with the regulatory body.
Thus, the Service decided to investigate more about these subscriptions, mainly due to the alerts and complaints that various consumers have submitted. The main complaint they express is related to the benefits associated with the contract.
Claims
For example, a fan of the University of Chile alleges that “I am a subscriber along with my father (…) Today I went to the website to redeem the ticket and I couldn’t. They told me that there were no more tickets, which means that they sold my ticket, despite having paid for it for a year and it also means that they received the money for the ticket twice.”
He added that “it’s already annoying to have to exchange something you buy for the year, but selling my ticket is downright theft. This has exhausted my patience, the treatment of season ticket holders is truly shameful, there’s no one to call, they don’t answer your emails, there’s no facility of any kind.”
Another fan, this time from Colo Colo, states that “in 2023 I was a member of the Colo Colo faithful fan club and several games were suspended due to problems with the fans. This year, 2024, I was informed by email that I would have compensatory tickets for several home games. I have tried to make use of that benefit (…) I never received a response.
On the other hand, a fan of the Catholic University claimed that “Cruzados SADP sold tickets for matches to be played at the Santa Laura Stadium, however, several of them have been held in a different venue and city, the last of them being against Huachipato in Rancagua (…) I submit this claim so that a solution can be given due to the non-compliance with the terms and references in relation to the match against Huachipato, for not taking place in the place established at the time of purchase.”
In relation to the numbers, the main claimant is Colo Colo with 275 casesfollowed by the University of Chile with 112 and finally the Catholic University with only 16 complaints.
What will SERNAC do?
The first thing that was done was to emanate a trade to gather more information regarding the SADP season ticket contracts of the three main clubs with the most complaints. The entity will review the clauses provided in the contracts and whether or not there are certain breaches of regulations in them.
On the other hand, the various complaints from consumers who indicate that their “seats” are resold because they are not exchanged by them and they do not receive any kind of royalty for this will be addressed. Finally, a variant will be pursued regarding the delivery of truthful and timely information that sports clubs must provide, this, due to the fact that many complaints point to not being aware of exclusions from some “dates” or championships within their subscription.
Once this investigative process has been carried out, the Service does not rule out class actions or other types of procedures.
