Robbie’s managers accused of ripping off fans over tickets
ROBBIE Williams’s management was accused of ‘shameful’ greed by fans last night for selling tickets to his shows at inflated prices.
Instead of being sold via the main outlets, some seats are being made available directly from ticket resale websites where higher prices are charged.
Official tickets are usually placed on sale at face value on sites such as Ticketmaster. Touts and fans with unwanted tickets then resell tickets on sites such as Viagogo and StubHub, often at a higher price.
However, Williams’s management company ie:music has put tickets for the pop star’s 2017 tour straight on to secondary websites charging premium prices, an investigation for BBC2’s Victoria Derbyshire show found. Instead of being available on Ticketmaster, some of the best seats were sold directly via Get Me In and Seatwave – both owned by Ticketmaster – for up to £65 more.
It is not known if former Take That singer Williams, who is worth an estimated £145million, was aware of this. Last night, his publicist Murray Chalmers said: ‘We have got no comment.’
The BBC found that an official ticket sold on Ticketmaster for a Level 1 seat at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester in June cost £95 before fees. But a ticket for the same tier on the same night in the next block – the same distance from the stage – cost £160 before fees on Get Me In.
Many music fans have protested at the way tickets for shows by big-name acts sell out within minutes only to be available instantly on resale sites at up to 100 times face value. Ironically, a year ago ie:music signed a petition calling for an end to tickets being sold at a premium by touts on secondary sites.
Last night, fans accused Williams’s management of greed and of acting as touts themselves. Matt Roscoe wrote on Twitter: ‘Shameful behaviour from your management team. Fans have been shown utter contempt.’ While it is not illegal to sell official tickets on resale sites, MPs have condemned the practice and called for more transparency over ticket pricing.
Nigel Adams, a Tory member of the Commons culture, media and sport committee said: ‘This appears to be blatant exploitation of the fans of a very popular artist.’
An employee at ie:music said: ‘All of our directors are out of the country at the moment and unavailable for comment.’
Ticketmaster said the tickets involved were ‘a very small percentage of the best seats in the house that are priced according to demand’. It confirmed that artists’ management companies pocket any profits from selling directly via its secondary sites.