A large number of events and travel plans have been, and are being, cancelled or postponed due to COVID-19 and, at the moment, customers are left to struggle with the gaps. In this two-part article, we explore the questions and issues that may arise in such cases, and your rights as a consumer. Following on from our initial article regarding travel cancellation, we now consider event cancellations and postponements.

Events – what are your rights?

Event Cancellations

If your event is cancelled or postponed because of COVID-19, the good news is that you may be able to obtain a refund.

Generally, where you have purchased your ticket directly from the event organiser, or a recognised ticket retailer, you do have some rights to rely on.

In the case of cancellation of events where the tickets were sold by theatres or retailers that are members of the Society of Ticket Agents and Retailers (the industry’s self-regulatory body), the providers are required to refund the tickets at face value. We are seeing this with a number of Broadway shows, where theatre groups such as Delfont Mackintosh Theatres are contacting affected customers to arrange later dates, credit notes or refunds. Providers are not, however, required to refund booking or delivery fees.

Should an event be postponed, and you are able to make the new date, you will either be issued a new ticket or asked to retain the old ticket. Should you be unable to attend the new date, you can request a refund. Again, it is unlikely that the booking or delivery fees will be refunded.

In other cases, such as where you purchased the ticket from a secondary ticket seller, you will need to check the terms and conditions applicable to your ticket sale. This will also be the case in relation to events with multiple acts, such as a festival.  For example, when Glastonbury Festival cancelled its 2020 event, it offered deposit holders the choice between receiving a refund (with the cancellation fee waived until September) or rolling over their deposits for “like to like” bookings in 2021 (the latter being the default option if you did not request a refund). Once again, it appears unlikely customers will be able to get a refund of admin fees.

For events that require an entry fee, such as a marathon or organised charity event, a refund on the entry fee is not always guaranteed and you will need to check the organiser’s terms and conditions. Often, such events will be postponed wherever possible. For example, the 2020 London Marathon, scheduled to take place on 26 April has been postponed to 4 October 2020. If a participant cannot compete on the postponed date, entry fees can be refunded or entries deferred until 2021 (with any additional entry fees payable).

The first port of call, however the tickets were purchased, is to contact the provider and request a refund if it isn’t automatically offered in the case of cancellation or if you are unable to attend a new date. Where you accept a postponement, it will be important to bear in mind that new terms and conditions (including additional fees) may apply to your re-issued tickets or new dates.

Supplier Cancellation

Given the current social distancing measures and the UK government’s ban on public gatherings of more than two people (bar funerals), many suppliers and venues are cancelling (or offering to postpone) parties, weddings and other special events.

If your supplier cancels, you will be entitled to your money back. However, if you are required to cancel, you may not receive a refund for fees already paid (deposits cannot be ‘non-refundable’ so ask for a breakdown as to why a deposit cannot be refunded). In either case, you should be aware of what the relevant terms and conditions say and what rights you have. It is also worth discussing with the supplier to see whether you can postpone to a later date or whether they plan to make additional dates available (we appreciate this may be difficult as we do not know how long the ban may last and for big events, you may be dealing with a large number of suppliers that need to agree to the new date).

Accommodation

We address accommodation cancellations more fully in our first article, and those comments will also apply here.

Essentially, where you no longer wish to keep your accommodation booking due to event cancellations or postponements, your first port of call should be the booking conditions or cancellation policy relevant to your booking. These will tell you whether your booking is changeable and/or refundable. Even in cases where a non-refundable booking has been made, we still recommend speaking to your provider as they may be prepared to offer a refund or credit, or offer to change the booking.

Gift cards and vouchers

You may have purchased, or be the recipient of, a gift card and/or voucher for a future event, such as a meal, trip or experience, which is due to expire shortly. If this is the case, you will be relying on the providers’ terms and conditions made known at the time of purchase for refunds and exchanges (even if the gift card and/or voucher were a gift).

A number of providers have announced that they will be offering

• exchanges;
• credit;
• rolling extensions (eg 3 months and then review); or
• fixed extensions (eg 12 months).

It may also be possible to extend a gift card and/or voucher, typically for a fee but this may be waived in the circumstance. You will need to discuss this with the provider.

Should the provider of the gift card and/or voucher be bought by another business, they may indeed honour the original gift card and/or voucher. It is worth checking with the new business.

If the provider goes into administration, and the gift card and/or voucher will not be honoured, you will be considered a creditor and will need to join the queue of those seeking refunds / money back. Also, you will need to make a claim in writing, with proof of purchase, which may be difficult if the gift card and/or voucher were a gift. Generally, creditors are treated equally, and there can be no priorities such that you are unlikely to see any benefit from your gift card/voucher. However, if the gift card and/or voucher were issued instead of a full refund, and you had the right to the full refund, you may be able to file a Section 75 claim (provided the gift card/voucher is over £100).

Other considerations

Chargebacks – please see our comments in the first article, but you may have some recourse depending on how payment was made.

Insurance – there are many insurance policies that may assist in the event of a cancelled or postponed events. Depending on the nature of your event, you may be able to claim against wedding insurance, event insurance, ticket insurance or as part of your travel insurance. If you took out one of these specialist policies for a special event, or have general travel insurance, it will be worth checking whether you could claim under your policy.

Policies will differ in how they deal with loss and cancellations due to government advice/orders and pandemics (it is worth noting that COVID-19 was only declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation on 11 March 2020). Unfortunately, however, pandemics are widely excluded from travel insurance policies and may be caught by wide exclusions in other policies. This means that many insured consumers are likely to be left out of pocket where their once-in-a-lifetime event has been cancelled.

Sport Events – please see for our colleagues’ article for specific details regarding sport events.

 

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