Ed Sheeran says he’s “not trying to stitch fans up” with ticket cancellations

Ed Sheeran has responded to claims that his new approach to fighting scalpers isn’t above board, maintaining that he’s “not trying to stitch fans up” by cancelling tickets bought via resale websites.

Last week, it was announced that Ed Sheeran’s current UK stadium tour is at the forefront of a new method which is seeing tickets purchased through resale websites such as Viagogo cancelled ahead of the event in order to make sure that fans aren’t paying more than face value.

While the fact that tickets are being cancelled might raise an eyebrow or two, this new method then allows people whose tickets have been cancelled to go to the box office and purchase a legitimate ticket for the price that they were supposed to pay after receiving a refund. Effectively, the punter doesn’t have anything to lose if their ticket is cancelled.

However, the UK press appears to be flooded with angry stories written by those who don’t quite understand the process, leading to Ed Sheeran to have to defend this method, and restate his distaste for scalpers.

“I hate the idea of people paying more than face value for tickets when you can get them at face value,” explained Sheeran to the BBC’s Newsbeat. “People just need to start taking a stance and within two or three years companies like Viagogo are just going to be kaput.”

We asked @edsheeran about his ongoing battle against ticket 'touts'. #BiggestWeekend #EdSheeran #Swansea pic.twitter.com/MJ0BUeCzr2

— BBC Newsbeat (@BBCNewsbeat) May 26, 2018

“I think [Viagogo] the ones pushing out this stuff that’s really negative because they want it to all seem very negative, but actually it’s a very positive thing for the fan in the long run.”

“It’s all being done properly I’m not trying to stitch fans up,” he confirmed. “Obviously the companies that we’re harming are not going to put stuff in the press that’s going to look positive to us, are they?”

“There are loads of acts doing it. I know Adele did it, Arctic Monkeys are doing it,” Sheeran continued. “No one is OK with it, even the fans and punters are not OK with secondary ticket touts, because sometimes you can spend all that money and it’ll be a fake ticket as well.”

“I think it is just about being strong and not giving in.”

Check out Ed Sheeran’s ‘You Need Me, I Don’t Need You’:

This article originally appeared on The Industry Observer, which is now part of The Music Network.