Ticketmaster shuts resale sites in battle against touts
TICKETMASTER is attempting to combat touts with the closure of its secondary ticketing websites Get Me In and Seatwave.
The ticketing giant plans to launch a fan-to-fan exchange in the UK and Ireland in October and across Europe early next year, and stopped listing new events on Get Me In and Seatwave yesterday.
Andrew Parsons, managing director of Ticketmaster UK, said: “We know that fans are tired of seeing tickets being snapped up just to find them being resold for a profit on secondary websites, so we have taken action.”
He said that it had “always” been the company’s long-term plan to close its secondary sites and create a ticket exchange. The exchange will only allow fans to sell tickets that they cannot use for the original value or less, and will not charge the sellers fees.
Secondary ticketing websites have come under fire, with Swiss company Viagogo facing legal action from the Competition and Markets Authority, which is investigating the sector.
In March, the Advertising Standards Authority took action against Stubhub, Viagogo, Seatwave and Get Me In after finding that they were not upfront and clear with consumers about extra ticket fees and charges that were added at the end of the booking process.
It banned the sites from not making the total ticket price, Vat-inclusive booking fee and delivery fee clear at the start of a booking.
Acts such as Ed Sheeran and Little Mix have taken steps to avoid tickets getting into the hands of touts, even cancelling those that ended up on secondary resale websites.