we don't need no touting legislation

An influential Parliamentary Committee has published a report on 'Touting' which has been released to mixed reactions from those in the industry. The Culture, Media and Sport select committee have been looking into the problem of online touts selling tickets at a vastly inflated price following concerns that auction sites are being exploited by organised criminals selling 'secondary market' tickets at increased prices.

The committee chairman John Whittingdale, made it clear there would be no ban on touting, saying it was, "Neither practical nor in the interests of consumers" to ban ticket sales through the secondary market - where bought tickets are sold on.

	festival organiser Michael Eavis

This may be good news for all of those fans that want a ticket for a sold out event, they are still able to purchase tickets to that must-see event without the law changing. However a number of promoters like Glastonbury Festival organiser Michael Eavis called for a complete ban on ticket-touting.

Mr Eavis voiced his opinion to Sky TV saying, "Nobody likes touts and I don't see why they can't push through a simple law to do something about it. I hate it."

Instead of a ban, the committee called on representatives from all sides to come together to provide a 'voluntary solution'. Mr Whittingdale made it clear that if industry chiefs failed to reach agreement on such a code, government legislation would be used as "a last resort."

The committee's report did recognise that the internet had made it easier for people to profit from selling on tickets and concluded this was unfair. The government have decided the public don't need nannying on this problem.

Michael (who wasn't consulted by the committee) voiced his ideas for a solution to the BBC, "Why don't they do what we're doing at Glastonbury - getting people to pre-register and putting photos on tickets? Why don't they enforce that? It costs about a pound a ticket to put a photo on there and then everyone's happy. People don't get fleeced - there's no massive profiteering - and there's no grief from the council."

Another possible solution would have been to demand that tickets sold on could only be done so at 'face value' and many called for ticket exchange sites like Scarletmist here (who only allow tickets to be exchanged at face value) to become the only legal way of re-selling. Alternatively, promoters could start holding tickets back to sell themselves, while undercutting the touts. This would be putting the touts out of business and provide revenue to cover their management costs.

The report did make it clear that the inflated price for re-sold tickets was not the fault of the organisers, who if they wanted to make more money from their event could just inflate, something which they don’t do.

Although the committee did hope that industry would do more to 'clamp down' on inflated prices by increasing the potential for people get refunds. They criticised event organisers and promoters in the report, saying they helped to 'feed' the market with non-existent or inadequate returns services.

This is a good idea, however the chance of the promoters bringing this about is not all that likely - as the last thing they would want is losing money from a sudden return of sales if circumstances, like forecasted bad weather for instance at a festival led to wholesale returns. Glastonbury appears to have the solution here, offering a return period, which ends a while before the event takes place.

Their proposals did include a request for all concerned to set up an 'across-the-board commitment' that the "distasteful" sale of tickets for free events and charity events would be stopped and that there should be a ban on reselling tickets given free to children or people with disabilities.

Bizarrely Mr Whittingdale also suggested that event organisers be given a 'share' in profits from resold tickets. This seems a strange recommendation, the organisers have already made the money from the ticket sale, increasing their revenue by getting a levy from re-sellers, just isn’t right.

However, ticket resale sites, such as eBay and Seatwave, believe that fans should have a second opportunity to buy tickets to events that have sold out. In a statement released to Gigwise, an eBay Spokesperson said recently, "We welcome the fact that the Chair of the Committee appears to have publicly rejected the notion of a ban on the secondary ticket market, which we think would be wrong in principle and unworkable in practice."

The eBay spokesperson also defended the resale of tickets saying that the secondary market is, "A legitimate one which benefits consumers." This benefit, however, would be even greater to the buyer, if tickets weren't sold for more than the face value or of course if people just accepted once an event is 'sold out', there's no more tickets.

Latest Updates