Record takes campaign to Parliament
Reporter Mark McGivern gives evidence on shady ticket sellers to MPs
SUPER-TOUT ticket resale website Viagogo are involved in “naked, fraudulent mis-selling” to music fans with the collusion of internet giant Google, according to a Scottish MP.
John Nicolson called out the secondary ticketing site as a powerful Commons committee heard fans buying tickets at rip-off prices from their website would not be guaranteed access to top gigs.
Furious MPs on the culture committee heard how Viagogo charge thousands of pounds for invalid tickets – then refuse refunds.
But there was an empty chair at the session yesterday. The firm refused to send an executive to answer MPs’ questions in their inquiry into ticket abuse.
The committee heard evidence from the Record’s campaign against ticket touts. Reporter Mark McGivern told how he exposed big sports and music venues with links to shady super-touts who are able to get their hands on in-demand tickets before real fans.
The session heard how the site sold tickets for thousands of pounds to fans despite being warned by promoters that they would invalidate the seats.
The committee were told adverts for tickets for an Ed Sheeran gig were on secondary ticketing sites within 10 minutes of the singer’s O2 show being announced.
Music tour producer Stuart Galbraith said: “We wrote to the main four secondary sites, asking them not to list the show, informing them that – as part of our terms and conditions – resale was not allowed and that if we were able to find anyone who purchased tickets in the secondary market, they would not be allowed into the show.
“All four sites ignored our requests and all four listed tickets at inflated prices, knowing it’s our intention to cancel those tickets.”
MPs said they were “horrified” tickets for Sheeran’s charity gig for the Teenage Cancer Trust were on Viagogo. Sheeran’s manager Stuart Camp said tickets which should cost £40 to £110 were on Viagogo for more than £5000 – without any of the profit going to charity.
Nicolson said: “Viagogo are lying to the public and doing so right at the top of the Google search engine.”
Internet giants Google – at the centre of controversy over profiting from major advertising appearing on internet hate sites – now face being dragged into the row over ticket touting as resale sites pay them to appear at the top of search lists for all the top gigs.
Nicolson, the SNP MP for East Dunbartonshire, said: “Google should not allow this.
“Google are colluding in the misselling of tickets. They cannot say they do not know this is fraud.”
Fellow committee member Nigel Huddleston MP, who used to be an executive with Google, agreed that the search engine company had questions to answer and ought to be pursued by the committee.
The Tory MP said Viagogo were “one of the most manipulative websites I’ve ever seen”.
Mocking Viagogo’s failure to appear, he said that if a tub of lard or handbag had been available “we would have put it on the chair” that the firm were meant to occupy.
The committee heard from the Record’s McGivern about apparent collusion between venues and the super-touts who make millions of pounds on the international market.
He was called to the committee after heading our investigations into the millions being made by super-touts. Nicolson said he was stunned by Record revelations that Scottish Rugby are involved in a contract with Viagogo, who sell briefs on for vastly inflated profits.
Nicolson said: “Tickets bought for £115 were being sold for £1956 once Viagogo had taken their cut of £458 a time for ‘VAT and booking fees’. Scottish Rugby’s got a case to answer, doesn’t it?”
Nicolson praised the Record, telling McGivern: “I’d like to congratulate you on the campaign that you’ve been running which is extraordinarily detailed and wellresearched. It is journalism at its very best.
“I can remind you of the profit that you said that one gentleman in Canada was going to make from one Take That concert and it was £200,000. Absolutely breathtaking.”
McGivern 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. They won’t exist.
“I think if you had a referendum on it, on whether you should bring in a 10 per cent mark up as a maximum, it would be a landslide.”
After hearing of tickets for West End musical Hamilton on the site which don’t exist, committee chairman Damian Collins MP said: “People who purchased those tickets may not be admitted to the show … They’re virtually party to a fraud on people.”