Italian authorities have moved to protect sports fans from illegal ticket reselling at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, taking place from 6-22 February.
The Italian Communications Regulatory Authority (AGCOM) has launched two separate legal proceedings following an alert regarding widespread ticket scalping or “bagarinaggio” on secondary markets.
The move comes after monitoring revealed a surge in unauthorised ticket listings on various online platforms, according to Italian news reports.
Despite official warnings and the implementation of secure digital ticketing systems by the Milan-Cortina organising committee, third-party resellers have allegedly been offering tickets at vastly inflated prices. Some tickets were reportedly being touted at 600 per cent higher than their original face value.
AGCOM’s intervention aims to identify the platforms facilitating these sales and to determine if they have failed to implement necessary filters to prevent the automated “bot” purchases that typically fuel the secondary market.
The Italian government and Olympic organisers have stressed a “zero tolerance” policy toward ticket scalping. The two proceedings initiated by AGCOM could lead to heavy fines, website blacklisting, and ticket cancellation.
Italian police have also warned that many of these secondary listings are “speculative” or “empty” – meaning the seller doesn’t even have the ticket yet and is gambling that they can acquire one later. This creates a high risk of mass-fraud, where fans travel to Italy only to find their digital QR codes are invalid or duplicates.
Authorities are urging the public to use only the official Milan-Cortina 2026 ticketing portal. Tickets for the Games are nominal (linked to a specific identity), and any legitimate transfer of ownership must be done through the official “fan-to-fan” resale platform provided by the organisers.
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