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Irish government could back ticket touting ban

By | Published on Tuesday 20 February 2018

Live Music

The Irish government might give its backing to legislative proposals that would basically make the touting of tickets for profit illegal in Ireland.

Two members of the Irish parliament, Noel Rock and Stephen Donnelly, have been calling for tough new regulations limiting online ticket touting for a while now. That led to a government review of the secondary ticketing market last year by the Department Of Business, which included a public consultation.

Some in the Irish live music industry gave full backing to strict new rules, while some in the ticketing sector questioned how effective an outright ban would really be. Though that did include Live Nation’s Ticketmaster which, of course, has interests in both primary and secondary ticketing, so has generally lobbied for light regulation of the latter.

That review of the ticket resale sector is complete and, according to the Irish Examiner, Rock and Donnelly will now meet with the Department Of Business to discuss the outcomes. It is thought the two politicians will then re-introduce their proposed new law that would ban the resale of tickets for profit and that the Irish government may formally back the proposals.

On those plans, Donnelly told the Examiner: “This will change mindsets. Anyone trying to sell at an inflated price will be breaking the law. It will be a culture change”.

Specifics of those proposed new rules are not yet clear, with questions still to be asked including what happens if tickets are touted for Irish events on websites based outside of Ireland, and who would be responsible for enforcing any ban. Similar proposals were passed in the Australian state of New South Wales last year.



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