Ticket touts – and the dodgy platforms that help them fleece fans – are finally facing a major government clampdown.
The key focus of a UK-wide consultation announced today will be establishing a resale price cap – which the Daily Record has campaigned for.
Our demands have helped put a squeeze on the worst excesses of the scalpers.
But the previous Tory government refused to deliver any knockout blow to touts who have fleeced fans for decades.
The consultation announced by the departments for Business and Trade and Culture, Media & Sport will also examine what can be done to limit “dynamic pricing” – where Ticketmaster combines with big acts like Oasis to fleece the artists’ own faithful fans.
The crackdown follows a firm pledge by MP Sir Keir Starmer to stop greedy touts from killing access to culture for ordinary people.
In March last year he said: “Labour will cap resale prices and ban ticket hoarding. Culture should be for fans, not excessive profits.”
The consultation hopes to hear from Scottish music fans who feel they have been abused by sales platforms and touts.
Scottish Secretary Ian Murray has promised that the action that will emerge from the consultation will be firm and decisive.
He said: “The Daily Record has been campaigning on ticket prices for years and, as far back as 2019 called for a resale cap of 10 per cent above face value prices. I want to thank the paper for continuing to highlight this issue and assure people that, as the Prime Minister promised before last summer’s election, we will deliver on these anti-touting laws.”
The government’s initial consultations with industry leaders has led them to seek views on an uplift of up to 30 per cent – which the Record believes would still allow room for touts to make a profit.
But it also seeks views on imposing a strict limit on the number of tickets resellers can buy on the primary market and then relist on secondary sites like Viagogo and Stubhub.
The crackdown could create greater consumer enforcement, with stronger fines and a new licensing regime for re-sale platforms.
Trading Standards can already issue fines of up to £5,000 for ticketing rule breaches – but these fines are rarely applied because of underfunding to enforcement bodies.
The main force for change in ticketing has been consumer group FanFair Alliance, which has continually exposed exploitation and brought bad practices into the open.
Spokesman Adam Webb said: “This consultation is long overdue. Like FanFair Alliance, the Daily Record has dedicated years highlighting this issue, and how online ticket touts and offshore resale platforms persist in breaking the law in order to rip off music and sports lovers. It’s a total racket that costs fans hundreds of millions of pounds each year.
“Just last month, the Record’s front page demonstrated how a group of Viagogo’s sellers were illegally touting thousands of tickets for events at the OVO Hydro – none of which had even been purchased in the first place.
“Fixing these scams should be straightforward. We need legislation that outlaws ticket resale for profit. We need it to be enforced. And we need to ensure fans are better protected, and they can easily resell a ticket to another fan for the price they originally paid.”
The UK’s Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said: “The chance to see your favourite musicians or sports team live is something all of us enjoy and everyone deserves a fair shot at getting tickets – but for too long fans have had to endure the misery of touts hoovering up tickets for resale at vastly inflated prices.
“As part of our Plan for Change, we are taking action to strengthen consumer protections, stop fans getting ripped off and ensure money spent on tickets goes back into our incredible live events sector, instead of into the pockets of greedy touts.”
When Daily Record journalist Mark McGivern gave evidence to the Culture Media and Sport Committee’s inquiry on ticket abuse, he advocated a 10 per cent He said: “The only way you’re going to bring this market under control is to put a cap on it.
“If you put a cap on the re-sale value of a ticket, say 10 per cent, and make it illegal to sell it for more, you will actually kill the secondary ticket market.”
The consultation is part of Keir Starmer’s Plan for Change.
According to analysis by the Competition and Market Authority (CMA), typical mark-ups on tickets sold on the secondary market are more than 50 per cent.
The Daily Record has exposed supertouts like Scot Andrew Newman and Canadian Julien Lavallee, who made millions from re-selling tickets on sites like Viagogo, Stubhub and Get Me In, which was owned by Ticketmaster but shut down after a torrent of abuse was highlighted by the Record.
The CMA has estimated the value of tickets sold in 2019 through secondary ticketing platforms to be about £350 million, with around 1.9 million tickets sold on these platforms. 1.9 million tickets accounted for around 5 to 6% of the number of primary tickets sold in 2019.
Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said: “From sports tournaments to Taylor Swift – all too often big events have been dogged by consumers being taken advantage of by ticket touts.
“These unfair practices look to fleece people of their hard-earned income, which isn’t fair on fans, venues and artists.
“Fans enjoying themselves in the moment are what make concerts and live events the thrilling experiences that they are, which is why as part of our Plan for Change, we are putting them back in control.”
Jon Collins, chief executive of LIVE, the live music trade body, said: “LIVE welcomes this positive step to put fans back at the heart of live music by tackling ticket touting. We have been a long-term and vociferous advocate for regulation of the secondary market, supporting the great work of the FanFair Alliance, and are pleased to see government delivering on its manifesto commitment in this area.
“We are delighted that measures which permit responsible and fair fan-to-fan resale, while eliminating third-party profiteering, will be brought forward. This will reduce the incentive for touts to squeeze fans out of the primary sale and highlights the need to set the cap on resales at or near the original price.”
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