Call for ticket resale industry review

Promoters venues and some ticketers are calling for a review of Australia’s ticket resale industry by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

Worth an estimated $1.5 billion globally, the secondary ticketing market is crippled by ticket brokers, who use technology to illegally profit from music fans.

Mushroom Group’s Michael Gudinski told The Herald: “We hate it … we’re against it. Some of the prices I’ve seen are extreme, and it doesn’t go to the artists or the promoters. It’s a great frustration and I think the ACCC should look at it.’’

The local competition watchdog ACCC sent the following statement to TMN today:

The Australian Consumer Law expects ticket resellers, like other businesses in trade or commerce, to avoid any conduct that may mislead or deceive consumers.

State Fair Trading agencies take a lead on many ticket reselling matters as the conduct associated with ticketed events is usually localised.

The ACCC works with our State Fair Trading colleagues when a ticketing issue has national implications.

Further details on consumer issues associated with ticket reselling is available from state fair trading agencies such as NSW Fair Trading.

The UK Government’s Consumer Rights Act came into effect last October. It requires that music, entertainment and sports consumers must be made aware of the ticket’s original price before it is sold on, any restrictions on the ticket, and standing or seating info such as block, row and seat numbers.

However, UK independent consumer rights watchdogWhich?released a reportin March which suggested some major secondary ticketing sites are selling concert tickets in ways that contravene UK law.

In the US, scalpers are pocketing AU$6.5 billion a year from popular event resales. A three-year investigationof the online ticketing marketfound as many as 46% of seats for many popular concerts in New York are not offered to the general public.

It’s believed ticket bots are to blame. Scalpers use such sophisticated software they can pose as genuine fans and automatically buy a large number of tickets before they go on sale on secondary ticketing websites.

Australia’s major resellers like the Live Nation-owned Ticketmasterargue they are safe and transparent. If resold ticket prices are high, then that’s just demand over supply.

Currently, Ticketmaster’s Resale website boasts tickets for upcoming concerts by Guns ‘N Roses (from $138, a mark-up of 50%), Flume (from $109.50, a mark-up of 38.6%), Keith Urban (from $227, a mark-up of $102.8%) and Garbage (from $147.60, a mark-up of 60%).

Some tickets for the aforementioned concerts are still available to purchase at the original price, a misconception Ticketek managing director Cameron Hoy said is common.

“Often, tickets sold on resale platforms at inflated prices are, in fact, still readily available at the real face-value price from official agencies,’’ he told The Herald.

Ticketmaster’s Carley Jellett told The Herald it isn’t to blame for exorbitant mark-ups.

“Tickets are sometimes listed at prices higher than the face value, but they will often be listed at or below face value. Ticket holders, not Ticketmaster Resale, control the price.”

South Australian Senator Nick Xenophon, who was part of a Senate inquiry into ticket scalping in Australia in 2014, told the ABC in August:

“We can use Commonwealth legislation, which hasn’t been used yet under consumer law, to restrict profit margins on the resale of tickets to 10 or 15%.”