Study: Secondary ticketing platforms breaking UK law

New research by independent consumer rights watchdog Which? suggests that some major secondary ticketing sites are selling concert tickets in ways that contravene UK law.

The report comes days before the UK Government’s independent review of the secondary ticketing market on Thursday. Which? found numerous breaches of the Consumer Rights Act which came into effect in October 2015.

Reselling tickets is perfectly legal in the UK. The major resellers argue they are safe and transparent, unlike transactions on the street or unproven sites where fans are unaware if they are providing credit card details to criminal organisations. If resold ticket prices are high, they emphasise, then that’s just demand over supply.

But the Act 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. This makes it easy for artists to track down where the resold tickets are. If their condition of sale was not to resell them, they have the right to cancel the tickets.

Which? found that this was not always conveyed on secondary market sites including Viagogo, StubHub, Seatwave and Get Me In!

It looked at over 200 ticket listings for Beyonce’s Formation tour, British comedian Catherine Tate’s show, Jersey Boys, Magic of the Musicals and Wicked the Musical across the four main secondary ticketing sites. Its research team also posed as sellers to find out what information was requires by these sites before they listed tickets.

Which? Director of Policy and Campaigns, Alex Neill, reported: “We’ve found evidence of tickets being sold unlawfully. This means people will struggle to find basic information on tickets, such as face value and seat location.

“It is clear the protections put in place by the Consumer Rights Act aren’t being followed by some of the biggest players in the market, and no action is being taken against them. The Government must crack down on bad practice so that people what they’re buying and don’t get ripped off.”

Citing one example, it found that on Viagogo, tickets for Beyonce did not show their original value, despite the secondary ticket range being from £40 (A$81.60) to more than £200 ($408.10).

The UK music industry is increasingly becoming hostile to secondary market, saying it is price-gouging the UK’s £2 billion ($4.08 billion) live industry. It is hoping that the Government’s review this week will criminalise scalpers.

Radiohead’s first UK shows in four years are just three dates at London between May 26 and 28 at the 3,300-seater Roundhouse in Camden. Quite a difference from when they last played London in 2012, at the 20,000-seat The O2 arena. Fans could only buy two tickets each, and attend just one of the three shows. Not surprisingly, £65 ($132.60) tickets were quickly found on secondary sites for £3,000 ($6121.50) … and as the dates grew closer, to £6,000 ($12,243).

When Adele put the tickets for her 20-date UK tour on her website at £42 ($85.70) to £108 ($220.35) each, it came with a warning. These were not to be sold on secondary markets. All the tickets vanished, and 25% of them hit the websites at hundreds and even thousands of pounds. Her management got a hundred of these tickets cancelled.

The problem is that scalpers use such sophisticated software they can pose as genuine fans and automatically buy a large number of tickets before they go on sale.

When it sold Adele’s tickets, ticketing website Songkick provided a way to fight back. Adele fans had to pre-register before the tickets went on sale. Songkick then used its technology to filter out 18,000 “known and likely touts” before they could buy tickets.

Mumford and Sons urged their fans to use ticket exchanges like Twickets and Scarlet Mist where tickets can only change hands at the original face value. Their manager Adam Tudhope also set up a petition calling for “tougher sanctions for resale websites” and quickly got 40,000 signatures.

The live industry argues that the most foolproof way is to print each buyer’s name on a ticket, and have them show photo ID at the venue. But this is not encouraged by venues because they themselves make a tidy profit from selling tickets at high prices on secondary platforms. To be fair, this approach also creates queues before the show, and prevents fans from gifting ticketing to friends.