It’s time to twist the thumbscrews tighter on touts
MP BACKS TICKET CRACKDOWN
DAMIAN COLLINS, chairman of Westminster’s digital, culture, media and sport select committee, has been a constant thorn in the side of tout sites like StubHub and Viagogo. He has shared the Record’s disgust at the way industrial scale supertouts have been allowed to make a killing by repeatedly raiding primary ticket sales, using multiple identities and computer trickery. Today, he echoes the Record’s call for Ticketmaster, the world’s biggest primary seller, to blacklist the worst touts and advocates laws against speculative selling - where touts don’t even possess briefs they are trying to flog.
WE HAVE come a long way in the two years we have been looking at the problems in UK ticketing.
The first thing to say is that the law has been tightened up but we really need to see it being enforced.
The Consumer Rights Act states that the seat number, the row and the block must all be stipulated clearly when any ticket is sold.
This might not sound much in itself but it proves that any ticket is real and it gives the artists and promoters the chance to cancel tickets where is abuse taking place.
The Competition and Markets Authority are now taking action against Viagogo and they are sending out a message that they won’t tolerate the constant abuses of consumer law. This is a big step forward.
The legislation that came into force in July this year, specifically banning the harvesting of tickets by bots, is another really important step because it’s right that touts who use computers to corner the market should face major penalties.
We have seen with the non-appearance of Viagogo before the committee, proof that there are rogue operators who aren’t interested in playing by the rules of abiding by our laws.
My message to anyone wanting to see their favourite band or sports event is clear – don’t buy from Viagogo. If you do, there’s a good chance the ticket won’t exist or it won’t be valid. You will have no guarantee you will get your money back. It’s just not worth the risk.
The way they have engaged with Parliament and their consumers proves they don’t care what people think of them. They are happy for rip-off merchants and use their site to effectively defraud people.
I agree with the Daily Record’s assertion that Ticketmaster should be blacklisting touts. It is very easy for the platforms to identify people who are selling large amounts of tickets.
Whenever they see someone has bought a cluster of tickets for an event, all at the same time,
where tickets are going to the same address or to a bunch of connected emails, the platform should cancel them at the primary stage.
These are not people who get two tickets for an event but then can’t go. It’s people whose job it is to buy and sell tickets in volume and, often, people who are employed by them.
If Ticketmaster and any of the other primary agencies can see that these tickets are being bought and resold in bulk, they should be banned.
Similarly, if the agent notices there are problems with a ticket, possibly because the terms and conditions ban resale and make them invalid, the seller should be banned.
I don’t think primary sellers should be courting or tolerating that kind of business.
Artists can hold a lot of power over how their fans are treated.
Ed Sheeran’s terms and conditions state that any tickets bought via a secondary platform won’t be valid, plain and simple. Viagogo were the only platform to defy the ban and it caused chaos for some fans.
If all artists established the same terms and conditions and it became the norm, the UK ticketing world would be vastly improved for fans.
They have to enforce the terms and conditions. That drives home the message for rogues like Viagogo that it is simply not worth the hassle for them to handle such tickets.
Artists really do have the power if they choose to use it.
All of the ticketing companies, including Viagogo, should immediately respect the wishes of artists who state that their tickets cannot be resold. This is a disaster for fans and it needs to be firmly accepted and enforced.
That would be a clear step that would protect consumers and harm touts, who will have bought tickets that are not valid.
The Daily Record has been an outstanding campaigner on this issue. It has helped bring it to prominence, along with campaign groups like the FanFair Alliance.
We have tried to support the efforts in Parliament. But the specific benefit of the Daily Record has been to bring forward the particular issues faced by consumers who have been ripped off and to illuminate the scale of the problem.
We have now seen changes in the law and the CMA are taking action against companies who don’t comply with it.
I think we should be looking at specific legislation to target people who try to sell tickets they don’t actually have. There are many cases of touts doing this and then trying to buy tickets on the streets to fill the demand.
I’d like to see firm enforcement action against touts who behave in that way.”