The Daily Record played a blinder exposing greedy ticket touts..now it’s our turn to change the law
THE Record’s Mark McGivern played a blinder when he appeared before the House of Commons Culture, Media, and Sport Select Committee last week.
I know. I’m one of the MPs who sit on the committee and heard his evidence.
It’s not often you see MPs open-mouthed in disbelief. But that’s what happened last Tuesday. We were holding a hearing into how ticket touts operate.
Most of us know that there are some unsavoury characters out there. But I suppose we think they’ll be shady-looking crooks in dirty macs flogging overpriced tickets to kids outside One Direction gigs.
Few of us realised the industrial scale of the deception used by today’s touts – and their technical expertise. Mark, who has been conducting a number of investigations into touting, spelled it out for us, as did our other committee witnesses.
Do you ever wonder why so many tickets get snapped up so quickly, for instance? That’s because touts use hi-tech electronic hardware to buy tickets in bulk within seconds of them being released. And there are huge profits to be made.
One Canadian supertout exposed by Mark had 350 tickets for sale for Take That’s O2 Arena gig at £777 each – which would have netted him a whopping £200,000 profit for a single concert.
Some might say that’s just the free market. If you’ve managed to buy tickets, and have taken the risk that you’ll be stuck with unsold ones, you should be rewarded with a tidy profit if you’ve made a good call.
Well, it’s not so simple. One notable absence at the committee was one of the country’s top ticket agencies, Viagogo. There was an empty chair where their boss should have been sitting.
Viagogo were too scared to turn up. They’d good cause to be.
MPs learnt that tickets sold through Viagogo and other big agencies are often worthless, because the concert venue and promoters’ terms and conditions say they cannot be sold on. One of the country’s biggest promoters told the committee that fans often break down in tears when they arrive at gigs only to be told that they can’t get in. It’s heartbreaking for them. But he thought it was the only way to beat touts in the long run.
Viagogo know this happens but don’t seem to care.
In fact, they’re so dodgy they’re selling tickets for top Broadway show Hamilton, which is coming to London’s West End soon – tickets which don’t even exist.
And it’s not just the fans who get cheated. Ed Sheeran is due to perform a sell-out gig soon at London’s Royal Albert Hall for the Teenage Cancer Trust. His manager told us the charity won’t get a penny for tickets sold on through Viagogo at inflated prices. Fans who turn up with tickets from the site may find they’re refused entry.
So how do you check whether your ticket is valid or not? The advice is to go to the artist’s own website – like www.edsheeran. com – and buy tickets there.
But the problem is that search engines like Google accept vast sums of money from Viagogo and agencies like it to allow their names to appear at the top of any search when fans look to buy tickets. Google do this, against their own company policy, since they knows the tickets being sold are invalid. This can’t go on. Fans are being ripped off. Charities are being cheated. And shady companies like Viagogo are guilty of naked, fraudulent misselling with Google in cahoots.
Trading standards officers round the country aren’t bringing prosecutions because they say fines are too small and the law is too weak.
We’ve heard the evidence from Mark McGivern and others. It’s time for MPs at Westminster to change the law. That’s our job.
This can’t go on. Fans are being ripped off. Charities are being cheated JOHN NICHOLSON