MP CALLS FOR OUTRIGHT BAN ON TICKET TOUTS
Campaigning MP says it’s time to stop simply tinkering and crack down on the rogue traders who leave genuine music fans out in the cold
TOUTS and their trade should be banned outright, an MP demanded yesterday.
Labour MP Sharon Hodgson, who co-chairs a Parliamentary group on ticket abuse said the time for “tinkering” was over and the Government should consider the radical move.
Hodgson spoke out as pressure grew on the Government on the issue in the wake of the exposure of supertout Julien Lavallee’s offshore tax dodging.
The MP, who previously pushed for a 10 per cent cap on any mark-up on concert tickets, said: “The uncovering of tax dodging by touts such as Lavallee shows exactly why this broken market must be fixed so fans are finally put first.
“I have repeatedly called for HMRC to look into the tax arrangements of ticket touts and the close relationships touts have with the secondary ticketing platforms.
“This new information shows just how important it is for this matter to now be taken seriously. It is high time these tax arrangements were investigated fully.”
Hodgson brought forward a Private Members’ Bill in 2011 which proposed a cap – a measure which ensures genuine fans who can’t make it to an event after buying tickets do not lose out.
But the Government refused to consider the measure.
However, the situation is now much worse, with more and more touts in the UK and internationally joining the feeding frenzy on tickets for sell-out events.
Hodgson, the MP for Washington and Sunderland West, said recent changes in the laws – including a ban on bots that harvest tickets in bulk – need full enforcement if they are to work.
She said: “I’m still hopeful that the measures we have in the Consumer Rights Act and Digital Economy Act will work through proper enforcement, along with seeing the Waterson Review implemented in full.
“However, while these are all welcome measures, they are all just measures which tinker around the edges of this broken market.
“For me, having a cap of face value plus 10 per cent – which is what I proposed in my Private Member’s Bill back in 2011 – is the only way forward. It is welcome that it is being raised again here in the UK and also across the globe.
“But at the end of the day, what is important is that we finally fix this market once and for all and ensure fans are put first, which has been my goal throughout this campaign.”
Industry investigator Reg Walker, whose Iridium Consultancy battle the worst touts and who has helped cancel thousands of harvested tickets, said the tide has turned and a cap should be established and enforced.
Walker said: “I think it is high time we started talking about a 10 per cent cap on what can be added on to the face value of a ticket when it is being resold.
“It seems obvious now that touts will work around any system that allows them to put a mass of tickets on secondary sites in the first place.
“It’s nonsense to say that a cap could not be enforced. If it is made a criminal offence for secondary sites to sell on tickets and the culpability is jointly to the sites and the touts, we can beat this.
“There is already scope to bring in such a law in a supranational way, where the UK Government could simply shut down a rogue website even if it locates itself in another country. They could just turn it off.
“The latest revelations on Julien Lavallee’s tax dodging are the tip of the iceberg and we need radical action.”
When Lavallee was tracked down to his HQ in Quebec, it was striking how closely his massive operation mirrors that of Scottish tout Andrew Newman.
Ice hockey fan Lavallee, 30, drove into his office at a discreet out-oftown office block in a flashy Range Rover but visibly crumpled when asked about his tax affairs, refusing to comment.
Newman, 27, also keeps a low profile at his office at Herkimer House in Linlithgow, West Lothian, where he parks his expensive Jaguar. He refused to comment when tracked down by the Record.
Both men got into scalping tickets after buying them for personal use then realising how easy it was to make big money.
In a short space of time, they had established how to use scores of credit cards in the names of family, friends and employees to harvest masses of prime tickets.
The Record has seen sales ledgers for both enterprises, which showed hundreds of tickets being siphoned from the primary supply within minutes, amid despair from genuine fans who lost out to their aggressive computer software.
Lavallee has admitted striking shady deals to cream off tickets from venues for big shows.
It is impossible to know if Newman has similar deals in place because of the lack of transparency in the ticket supply.
Touts work round any system allowing a mass of tickets on secondary sites REG WALKER