THE TOP TEN TO TOPPLE TOUTS
TICKETS RACKET DON’T BE RIPPED OFF Guide offers advice on how to buy briefs at face value 9 10
MUSIC fans are being given a crash course in how to beat ticket touts.
The FanFair Alliance campaign group’s fan guide offers 10 key measures to tackle the “parasitical and broken market” caused by secondary ticketing sites and the touts who flourish there.
The FanFair Alliance praised the Daily Record’s Stub Out The Touts campaign, which has supported their aim of enforcing a legal clampdown on chancers making a fortune from real fans.
The Alliance’s Adam Webb said: “A succession of Daily Record investigations have highlighted how so-called secondary ticketing platforms are complicit in driving fans straight into the arms of hardcore touts.
“The guide is a response to the dark arts employed by the resale platforms Get Me In!, Seatwave, StubHub and Viagogo.
“These businesses not only fuel industrial-scale levels of ticket touting, they also use a range of manipulative marketing techniques that sow confusion when tickets go on sale and direct fans away from legitimate and authorised sellers. “In response, FanFair have consulted widely to come up with 10 simple tips that aim to empower audiences and help them better navigate the ticket buying process. “We want to help fans identify legitimate and authorised ticket agents, and to promote the concept of ethical resale – where ticket purchasers who can genuinely no longer attend a show have a safe and secure mechanism to sell their ticket on at face value.” Among the stars to back the guide is Scot Amy Macdonald. She also backs Twickets, a non-profit secondary sales platform. Amy said: “Ticket touting is something I feel very strongly about and I think it’s really important people are made aware that some ticket resale services that seem legitimate are taking advantage of fans. “I’ve implemented ticket naming on my UK tour dates in an attempt to make sure the tickets go to real fans and not touting services, and would urge anyone who finds themselves being unable to make it to a show to resell their tickets at face value to other fans, using a service like Twickets.”
The fan guide was drawn up after a huge escalation in public anger against secondary ticket sites that encourage the worst touts to vastly inflate prices – meaning huge commissions on the resale.
The guide also hopes to tackle the confusion caused by the big four resale sites, which leaves many fans thinking they are buying from primary sellers and unaware of the huge cost of tickets.
Labour MP Sharon Hodgson, a key voice against ticket abuse, said: “This guide will be an ideal companion for all fans to use and complements the work going on in the live entertainment industry and in Parliament to clean up this murky market.”
Tory MP Nigel Adams championed a move to ban computer “bots” that harvest tickets in bulk, which is set to become law.
He said: “While we’re working hard to see what else we can do in Parliament to help make secondary ticketing work better for fans, it’s so important to keep advice like this guide in mind, and be vigilant for red flags before parting with money.”
Ed Sheeran, whose shows at Glasgow’s SSE Hydro were targeted by greedy traders, said: “Read the advice in the guide – find out who the authorised ticket sellers are, avoid the secondary sites, and if you’ve got to sell a ticket, sell it for face value.” RE-SELL AT FACE VALUE Many authorised ticket sellers offer face value ticket resale. ACT LIKE A FAN, NOT A TOUT If you can’t make a show, please sell your ticket for face value. ● Get the full guide at fanfairalliance.org
This guide will be an ideal companion for all fans to use SHARON HODGSON