This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Business News Live Business Top Stories
APPG proposes new regulations for secondary ticketing, Ticketmaster does not approve
By Chris Cooke | Published on Friday 25 April 2014
The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Ticket Abuse has published the findings of its recent review of the secondary ticketing market, and says it will now table amendments to the Consumer Rights Bill, due to be debated in the House Of Commons next month, to put in place some obligatory regulations for ticket resale sites to follow.
The APPG’s report doesn’t call for ticket touting to be banned, or limited really, but seeks safeguards to ensure resale platforms are not used by ticket fraudsters, and more transparency as to who it is selling the tickets, especially where people are selling large quantities of tickets for any one event.
Amongst the Group’s recommendations are the following:
• Guaranteed compensation for fans falling victim to ticket scams through resale websites, covering their costs for getting to the event.
• A legal requirement for resale websites to publish full information about the tickets listed through them, as well as information on the seller.
• A further requirement for resale websites to declare where tickets have been given directly to them from an event organiser, as well as to investigate the provenance of tickets where one individual tries to sell more than 20 for one show.
• Responsibility for tracking down and prosecuting those committing ticket crimes to be given to a national police agency.
Possibly keen to not be seen to only be forcing new regulations onto the secondary ticketing market itself, the APPG report also calls on promoters to do more to stop large quantities of their tickets from entering the secondary market, and to support limited-mark-up ticket exchanges for fans who bought tickets with the intent to attend but then cannot. Though those are things most promoters would likely say they are already doing.
Two of the key MPs behind the Ticket Abuse APPG are Tory Mike Weatherley and Labour’s Sharon Hodgson, who have both commented on their findings.
The former told CMU: “The whole industry needs to be much more open. Consumers deserve to know which tickets they’re buying and who they’re buying them from. Nobody’s saying there shouldn’t be a secondary market, but it needs to work in the favour of consumers and the creative sector, not of a few faceless individuals getting rich off the hard work, investment and talent of others”.
Meanwhile Hodgson MP added: “As the Metropolitan Police have said, the complete lack of transparency in the secondary ticketing market contributes to consumers getting ripped off – whether that’s through artificially high prices or buying fake or cancelled tickets. There’s no excuse for inaction from either the secondary market or the government, and I hope ministers will use the Consumer Rights Bill to put fans first”.
The report is unlikely to be favourably received by the UK secondary ticketing market, which will no doubt argue that it already has measures in place to stop fraudsters, and to compensate customers if they are victims of fraud, and that the other transparency measures are unnecessary.
Certainly the secondary ticketing division of Ticketmaster was quick to hit out at the APPG’s report, it having already questioned whether the name of the Group – ‘Ticket Abuse’ – wasn’t an indication that participating MPs had certain preconceptions about the industry.
The Live Nation-owned ticketing giant’s MD for Resale Christoph Homann told CMU: “The APPG on Ticket Abuse have not listened to industry advice. They’ve ignored the facts and the lessons to be learnt from other markets where onerous legislation has pushed the resale market underground or offshore – exposing fans to fraudulent cyber touts”.
He went on: “Fans should not be put in a position where they end up buying tickets on the street and from unsecure sites. We have responded to what fans want by creating a safe, transparent and lawful environment for the buying and selling of tickets. With its raft of recommendations, the APPG is only serving to harm the secondary ticketing industry, and more importantly, the fans”.
It remains to be seen if Weatherley, Hodgson et al have any luck in talking their ticket touting regulations into the Consumer Rights Bill. Many have noted that the recently appointed Minister For Culture, Media & Sport, Sajid Javid, has previously spoken up in favour of the secondary ticketing market in parliament, though the APPG would likely stress that their proposals aren’t about stopping online touting, rather making the whole process more transparent.
