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Government back self-regulation on secondary ticketing
By CMU Editorial | Published on Thursday 18 February 2010
The government’s Department For Culture, Media & Sport has this week backed a new code of practice for the secondary ticketing market, which has been developed by the ticket resale sector itself, but which, the DCMS says, should overcome ministers’ concerns about the growth of online ticketing touting, and the risks for consumers who buy tickets in this way.
As previously reported, as the resale of tickets to live events via online auction sites like eBay, and then websites specifically set up for ticket reselling, like Viagogo and Seatwave, started to grow in the middle of the last decade, government types called on the live sector to introduce measures to protect consumers, who might unknowingly find themselves handing over money to dodgy touts who might not actually have access to the tickets they are selling.
Ministers even threatened to introduce new laws regulating ticket touting if a voluntary code couldn’t be agreed. It was initially a weak threat because many key tour promoters – who weren’t especially happy to see an ever increasing number of touts profiting from the resale of tickets to their events – said they’d be more than happy to see the sort of rules that regulate the resale of tickets to football matches be applied to gigs and other live events. Having received this response from the live sector, ministers revealed that they weren’t actually that keen to legislate in this area after all, and so government continued to push for self-regulation.
The good news for political types was that by this time the ticket-resale website sector was starting to grow, meaning there were now companies who had a vested interest in government not introducing new anti-touting laws, and which could spearhead self-regulation plans. Primary ticket sellers like Ticketmaster were also starting to dabble in secondary ticketing, so they too could be part of the self-regulation process.
Which is how the code of practice this week approved by the DCMS got to be written. The new code will be overseen by the UK’s Society Of Ticket Agents & Retailers, with the support of the Association Of Secondary Ticketing. It was backed by the government in a DCMS report on secondary ticketing published this week.
Launching the report, Sports Minister Gerry Sutcliffe told reporters: “We wish to avoid the use of new legislative measures which could mean greater burdens for the events industry and sanctions against market participants and be against the interests of consumers. We look to the market to act responsibly and in the interests of the public…We naturally want to ensure that the secondary market provides the strongest possible safeguards for the public and the government will, if necessary, act to improve these”.
Needless to say, the Society Of Ticket Agents & Retailers welcomed the government’s report. Music Week quote the body’s Jonathan Brown thus: “We welcome the DCMS support in bringing about improved standards in the industry to help ensure consumer protection. We hope this process will also encourage better standards in the secondary market and greater clarity and confidence for all ticket buyers, particularly when twinned with the current work being undertaken by the Office Of Fair Trading and Trading Standards to tackle online scams”.
Though not everyone thinks this is the greatest news since the relaunch of the Wispa bar. Prominent artist manager Jazz Summers, a vocal opponent of the growth in secondary ticketing, told the FT: “[The government’s] report is a whitewash – a waste of time and money. I do not think it is helpful for the health of the music industry, as it will mean concert-goers are likely to pay more for big name acts and not support the smaller acts of the future”.
